Read One is Come (Five in Circle) for Free Online

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    “Chuck!” Crystyn rushed forward and scooted Haylwen aside. “Chuck, come in, what a surprise!” She stood on her tiptoes to give him a quick hug, careful to not wrinkle his expensive suit.
    “Yes, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would pop in,” he said, still in the doorway. “My, my, Haylwen, you have grown!”
    “Of course you remember your Uncle Chuck,” Crystyn supplied for Haylwen, turning to further move her aside. Noticing him as his head popped out the door, she included Cadarn. She gestured for him to come out, but he was already on his way. His door left open, his music became a pounding background noise.
    “Uncle Chuck!” Cadarn ran forward and slapped Chuck’s offered palm.
    “Yep, that’s a zinger,” Chuck said, pretending to be in pain and shaking his hand.
    “What brings you by?” Abrennin asked, leaning against the office door frame, arms crossed.
    “As I said, I was just in the neighborhood. It’s been a long time, and I thought I would bring Cadarn’s birthday present myself this year. You don’t mind that it’s a bit early, do you?” he said, turning to Cadarn.
    “No way!” Cadarn said, eyes gleaming.
    Chuck disappeared into the hall as he bent to pick up something from just outside the door, reemerging with two large boxes. “Of course, I brought a little something for my little Hay bale, too.”
    Ushered in by Crystyn, he looked around the small apartment for somewhere to put the boxes. Abrennin shut the office door and stepped forward to take the boxes from him. He led the several steps into the living room, putting the boxes on the table in front of the couch.
    “Can I get you anything?” Crystyn asked.
    “No, thank you,” Chuck replied, his smile thinning as it went from Crystyn to Abrennin. “I can’t stay long. Even private jets have to answer to air traffic control.”
    Cadarn and Haylwen sat next to each other on the couch. Cadarn, having unstacked the boxes and finding out which was his, looked expectantly from his parents to Uncle Chuck. Chuck, all smiles, nodded and motioned to go ahead. Cadarn didn’t need more, and ripped open the wrapping paper and into the plain brown box. Packing peanuts spilled as he rummaged in the box. Cadarn’s fervor erupted in a little ‘ooh’ as he carefully pulled out the prize, a black cylinder. It was a bit longer but thinner than a roll of paper towels. It looked heavy from the way Cadarn was moving it, trying to figure out what it was.
    Haylwen opened hers, immediately revealing a large doll with blond pigtails. Its opened- eyes moved, found Haylwen’s face, and a smile slid onto its face. Haylwen quickly put the doll on the table and sat back. Haylwen’s doll took that momentary silence to speak. “Hi, Haylwen. Would you like to have a tea party?”
    Haylwen just looked at it.
    “Or would you like to hear a story? I have a full library.”
    Chuck took the black cylinder from Cadarn. “It’s the latest prototype from my portable division.” He set it on the table, on its long side, pulling on two recessed tabs. From each side he pulled a thin flat panel, the one extending up twice as long as the one lying on the table. A row of red lights lit up between them. “Full screen monitor and keyboard. Three cubic processors,” he paused, checking to be sure Cadarn was lost. “A cubic processor has more processing power than nine standard CPUs.” When Cadarn’s eyes widened, Chuck rattled on.
    Haylwen’s doll stood up and reached out its arms. “Would you like a hug?” it said.
    “Um, how do you turn it off?” Haylwen asked, backing even more into the couch.
    Without looking, Chuck said quickly, “Go to sleep.” The doll lay on its side and closed its eyes.
    Chuck reached the end of his demonstration. “And it uses quad-compressed WiFi for connectivity,” he paused again, but Cadarn looked sad instead of confused. “What?” Chuck said.
    “No WiFi.”
    “Oh. Well. You can link to your