The morning dawned and Katrina woke slowly, her mind foggy and resistant to consciousness. With her work being all online while the office building was being repaired she had failed to set herself an alarm and so she’d been sleeping later and later into the morning each day. Her movements were slow and deliberate as she got up and began getting ready for the day. It took some effort to focus on what she was doing and she found herself repeating parts of her morning routine more than once.

She was just finishing pouring out the curdled milk onto the purple flower when something in her memory shifted. There was something about the plant she was forgetting. She stood there for a moment, thinking hard about what it was that she was forgetting but the memory proved illusive and refused to come back to her.

Wrinkling her nose at the smell, Katrina replaced the cloth over the jug of curdled milk. It didn’t stop all of the smell, especially since she was pouring it onto the base of the flower, but it helped. The flower itself smelled rather pleasant and she’d begun to notice its fragrance wafting through her home.

As she turned her thoughts away from the flower and towards her work she still struggled to get her mind to clear. She found herself just sitting at her computer, staring at the screen as time ticked by and nothing was getting done. Her emails were piling up and her coworkers were beginning to text her rather than email her in their attempts to get her to respond. It didn’t matter. Katrina was just as terrible at paying attention to her phone as she was with everything else.

YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO FOCUS, the voice said.

It took her a few seconds to acknowledge the voice. Her thoughts pooled slowly until they reached the front of her mind where she could look at them and put them in order.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Katrina muttered. “I must be getting sick or something.”

I CAN HELP YOU ACCOMPLISH YOUR WORK, the voice offered.

“I’m sure I can do it,” Katrina said, reluctant to accept further aid from the voice, “it’s just a slow morning.”

IT’S ALREADY THE AFTERNOON.

Katrina looked down at her desk clock. It was almost four o’clock and she’d hardly done anything.

“No, no, I’ll just get to it tomorrow,” Katrina continued to mutter and she sent off a quick email to her department, stating that she was ill and that she’d be taking the next day off. “There,” she sighed, “that’ll keep everything covered.”

YOU HATE MISSING WORK, the voice pointed out. YOU WILL BE BEHIND WHEN YOU RETURN. LET ME HELP YOU AND IT WILL ALL BE—

“I said no!” Katrina nearly shouted. She wasn’t sure why she was refusing help from the voice. She just knew that a faint flicker of fear in the back of her mind was keeping her wary of the voice.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF, the voice told her. WE HAVE AGREED TO HELP ONE ANOTHER, AFTERALL.

“And what do you want in return?” Katrina asked, and then added hastily, “not that I’m agreeing to anything.”

THERE’S ANOTHER FLOWER GROWING NEARBY, the voice said. I WOULD ASK YOU TO TEND TO IT AS YOU HAVE THE FIRST.

Katrina looked over to where the flower sat on its shelf. It was a rather pretty flower, and it smelled nice. She didn’t really notice the smell of the curdled milk from this distance. If she had two of them she could put them on opposite sides of the room and then she’d have even more of that pleasant smell around her.

“You’ll take care of my work if I go get this other plant and take care of it?” Katrina asked warily.

YES.

Something in the depths of her mind was struggling against making this agreement. She didn’t trust the voice, but at the same time she really did hate falling behind at work. Besides, what was the harm in taking care of another plant? It would only be for another couple weeks and then she’d be done.

“If I do this,” Katrina began cautiously, “then I would expect you to take care of my work for me while I’m sick. And I don’t want you doing something I don’t like.”

I WOULD ONLY DO WHAT IS NEEDED.

“Yeah, well, you burned down my office building last time.”

I WILL SEE THAT YOUR WORK IS COMPLETED IN THE EXACT SAME MANNER THAT YOU YOURSELF WOULD HAVE IT DONE, the voice assured her. NO ONE WILL EVEN KNOW YOU ARE SICK.

“Too late for that,” Katrina sighed, “I’ve emailed them already.”

NO, YOU DIDN’T, the voice said.

Katrina was about to contradict the voice when she noticed that she had hit the discard button, rather than the send button, after she’d written the email. She rubbed her eyes, surprised by how tired she was even though it was still so early in the afternoon.

“Fine,” she said at last, “I’ll go get this plant and take care of it if you’ll handle my work for me while I’m sick.”

IT WILL BE DONE.

“Now where is this other plant?”