Talking Point
"Don't you get shirty with me, buddy!"
Robbie blinked and stared down at the object on James' palm. Small and soft, it fit innocuously and snugly among his fingers. Robbie drew breath, taking in the spicy and faintly citrus aroma. "Marvellous what modern science can do, eh?"
"Oh, it isn't man made at all, it's completely natural. And that isn't all it can say." James poked the textured saffron surface with a long forefinger. An oblong slit opened up from end to end like a mouth. "Put your top button on, scruffy!"
"Secret admirer across the sea, eh?"
"I found it," James said, "at the bottom of my Christmas stocking."
There was a tap at the door and Jean Innocent came in. She looked with interest at the sphere in James' hand. "What's that you've got there?"
Robbie smiled. "That's a conversational mandarin, Ma'am."