“Some days it’s the best thing I do,” Frankie answered him as they climbed the stairs. “Other days it makes me crazy, just like anything else. You meet some exceptional kids who are singled out for all those ‘Prep for Prep’ programs that will lift them out of here to places like Groton or St. Paul’s. But for others the deck is just stacked against them.”

Frankie took Charlie to see the classroom she had set up as a clinic and science center. There were anatomy charts on the walls and students’ drawings about AIDS, smoking, and drug addiction.

“Francesca, I’m so proud of you for this,” Charlie said genuinely.

“It’s really the principal here who got me to do this,” Frankie explained.

“You can take some credit. I’m sure the principal doesn’t drag all her doctor friends up here and make them feel silly about their insular lives.”

“I’m sorry, did I do that?” Frankie suspected the Nun’s Story scenario was backfiring.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” Charlie sat up on a desk.

“Sure.” Frankie tried not to seem apprehensive.

“Why didn’t you ever try to have a child? You’d be such a good mother.”

“Did you ever read The New Viruses?” Frankie asked.

“You mean Jack Stanley? I know him. He’s married to some friend of Samantha’s. I didn’t think much of the book. Mostly scare tactics.”

“Well, we were together for ten years before he married Samantha’s friend, and I suppose I thought I’d have a child with him.”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone what I’m going to tell you.” Charlie put her hand on her heart. “You have to promise.”

“I promise.”

“She’s not really a friend of Samantha’s. She’s a patient of mine and she’s a complete nightmare. She’s been getting chemical peels and Botox since she was eighteen. By now her skin is made of AstroTurf.”

Frankie laughed openly. “Tell me something. Does she also have a beard?”

“I love when you’re as mean as the rest of us.” Charlie laughed.

“Oh, I promise you, I’m disgusting.” Frankie put her feet up on a desk.

“But why didn’t you have one alone? Isn’t that what a lot of women in your situation do now?”

“I thought about it. Then my dad got sick. And, I don’t know, I’m not that good at being close to people. I mean I might be better with the kids here than with one of my own. I need a little distance,” she explained while fidgeting with a nearby eraser.

“You don’t seem that way to me. You are such a caring person.” He smiled.

Frankie hunched over. “I guess a person can care too much, and that’s not good for anybody either.”