Crafty

When the alarm went off, Joe woke and turned to smile at Kim as he did every morning. He found an empty space next to him, the sheets cool and the pillow smooth. He pulled on his dressing gown and padded downstairs. Kim was sitting at the kitchen table, the laptop illuminating a frown on her face as she read.

‘Morning. You okay?’ he said.

‘Hmm? Yeah. Been doing some research.’

He made them tea and came to sit beside her. ‘What have you found then?’

‘This clone thing. I’ve been looking back over the last few years and it turns out, there have been quite a few reports of orders not arriving, or boxes delivered which turned out to be empty. In each case, when people made a fuss, the company was very crafty and always sent out a replacement. Their feedback is 100% positive, mainly because of this kind of customer service.’

‘Well, that’s good, isn’t it?’

‘It is - until you start to wonder what happened to the ones that got away.’

‘How many of those have there been?

‘It’s difficult to be sure but I’ve found 27 reports in the last three years, since they started marketing these things.’

Joe whistled. ‘That’s worrying.’

‘What is worrying?’ Xavier had come downstairs while they had been talking and stood in the kitchen doorway.

‘Oh, nothing serious,’ said Kim, closing the laptop with a snap. ‘We were just talking about- about- what to have for breakfast. We seem to have used up all the eggs.’

‘Would you like me to make something else? If I could look at some videos I’m sure I could find a different recipe you would enjoy.’ Xavier looked rather proud of his use of ‘enjoy’-  a word he had learned only a few hours before.

’No, that’s fine,’ said Kim hastily. ‘We have cereals and milk for this morning.’