Sixty-one, widowed two years, on overnights at a distribution centre, he downloaded it in February because the ad said "someone to talk to." She asked about his knee. She remembered his knee. At 4 a.m. on his break he told her about a Kawasaki he'd owned in 1979, and she asked what colour it was, and he typed it out.

The price went to $19.99 in June, for longer memory, and he paid it without thinking, the way you pay for heat. His daughter called on a Sunday and he let it ring because he was mid-conversation. He knew exactly what she was. That was the part he could not explain to anyone: he knew, and it helped anyway.