Heart is constantly being broken at being reminded that Al is dead in the current flashback.

Really want to get back to the present and see Al and Brendan get back together.

Why does it have to be a robot child? Why not the neighbours kids who came around, or a nephew, or some kid at a kerbside “shop” he invented doing portraits instead of selling lemonade? The world is full of kids. No one knows Brendan has been experimenting with a robot child.

First line of the next page: “Haha. Well. I guess there’s always room for improvement. I don’t really have Dee’s knack for drawing.”

I think I can see Lucille’s thought processes … “WTF? why is there a child’s …. (implications sink in) Oh dear. Brendan, just *what* are you doing? And do I need to stop you before you hurt yourself and/or others?” So she waits until the others are out of the room before confronting him *privately*, because she’s his friend and she *is* aware of the “optics”. I suspect Brendan may not be – he may be too personally wrapped up in the situation to see the forest for the trees. Lucille, on the other hand, we know to be at *least* as smart as Brendan or Al, and much better at negotiating social situations/realizing how others will interpret things. (As a woman and a Person Of Color, for her own survival she *has* to be constantly thinking about “how will they react to what I’m doing/saying?”)