David is just a little boy, a little boy who loves his mother, and his teddy bear. David wants to make his mummy happy, and tell her he loves her, but can't quite seem to find the words.

His verbal communication center is giving him trouble again. He may have to go back to the factory.

For more than four decades Brian Aldiss has been confounding the limits of satire, poetry, and science fiction, creating stories from the well of dreamscapes that come up sharp against the cutting edge of our technological society.