Human Sister

around, its back cracking hard against one of my kneecaps. I tried not to wince. Casey sat, straddling the straight-backed chair.
    “Didn’t that hurt?” he asked. “You on something?”
    Interesting how different are the many sensations of pain, I thought. They’re all my friends, trying in their way to help me.
    “Doc, get in here!”
    A man wearing black shoes, black socks, charcoal trousers, and a long white coat entered the room and stood beside me.
    “Take a sample,” Casey ordered. “We need to know if she’s on something.”
    The doctor pricked my finger and drew a spot of blood. As he was leaving he said, “I’ll let you know in five, ten minutes, max.”
    “Okay, let’s start at the beginning,” Casey said to me. “What’s your name?”
    “Sara Jensen,” I answered, without looking up at him.
    I was surprised and upset at how my answering this question, a question Grandpa had told me I could answer, seemed to pull me out of the quiet place I’d been in.
    “So, you can talk. Good. We’re moving right along. You went to Calgary before Christmas with Elio, right?”
    Breathe slowly, deeply, I thought. Feel yourself moving away from him.
    “Okay. We know you can hear. We know you can talk. Now, we’re going to hear you answer my questions without all this fucking around. You went to Calgary with Elio. Right?”
    He rapped his thick, hairy fingers on the back of his chair, then reached into his suit coat pocket and pulled out a packet of photographs. “Looky what we got here. It’s you and your love sitting together on a flight to Calgary. Oh, and here. You and him at Calgary Zoo with your father and your lovely, sweet mother. Now, look at this one—it’s my absolute favorite. Warms my heart. The two of you hugging at Calgary International just before he boards a plane to Amsterdam to go see his mother. And he’s crying. How sweet.”
    They’ve decided to play good-guy, bad-guy with me, I thought. Ridiculous!
    He shuffled through the pictures—there were about thirty—then continued, “You get the picture. We’ve done our homework. Now, back to my question. You went to Calgary a couple of weeks ago with this sweet guy, Elio, right? I understand he likes men, too.”
    Following a spike of fear—or was it hatred?—I forced myself to breathe deeply, slowly. Don’t let him rile you, I silently instructed.
    “So, you want to be a smart-ass, do you?” With the suddenness of an explosion, he hurled himself up off his chair. “Do you?” he shouted in my ear.
    I gave a little start but said nothing.
    “Look here, this is no game of hide-and-seek for some spoiled little rich kid. Our country, our species, is in great danger from androids and from those who coddle them. And because of the magnitude of that danger, I really can be your worst nightmare. I’ve made people tougher, a lot tougher, than you or your grandfather or your hotheaded boyfriend whimper and beg and shit themselves.”
    He slammed his palm against the back of his chair. “Doc!” he shouted, and he stormed from the room.
    This man did frighten me. I felt a strong urge to get up, try the door, and, if it opened, run away. But if I do, I thought, these people likely will break into our house and possibly find Michael, or they’ll grab Elio or Grandpa or Grandma and interrogate them—and find Michael. No. I have to stay and fight. I’m the only one of us who has been trained to fight this kind of fight.
    A few minutes later, the walls of the room shuddered as the door quickly opened.
    “We’ve decided you’re not on anything except a notion to be a stubborn smart-ass,” Casey said, entering. “But we’ve got a cure for that, don’t we, Doc?”
    Casey carried a white pail and a jar containing about a half-liter of liquid. The doctor followed him, pulling along what looked like a portable toilet. “Now, you’ve got a choice,” Casey said. “Either you can take your clothes off by yourself so the doctor can examine you for smuggled devices, or he’ll do it for you. Which is it going to be?”
    My first impulse was to recoil from the idea of undressing in front of these men. But I sensed that more difficult challenges lay ahead and any weakness I exhibited here would taint everything to come.
    I unbuttoned my shirt and handed it to the doctor, who passed it on to Casey. Casey stuck two of his thick fingers into the front pocket, pinched along the collar and the seams, dropped the shirt on the floor and,