He was one of the most attractive men I’d ever seen. I hadn’t grown used to how everyone was perfect in the city yet. I kept doing double takes as we went down the corridors of the hospital on our way here. It almost made me wonder if there were no humans in the city, and everyone was a robot. There were differences in height and some in weight (though nobody was too thin or too overweight), but everyone had unnaturally symmetrical features.

The doctor kept staring at where we were conjoined, but I guess he’d have reason to, considering what he was proposing. Everything we saw was new and strange. So shiny. I didn’t know how to describe any of it or what any of it was called. I missed my parents and wished they were here with us. Mana-ma must have realized what they’d done. How would she punish them?

“You have to go into surgery immediately,” the doctor said, cutting right to the heart of it (ha, ha). When he spoke, I kept getting distracted by the pretty curve of his lips, the way the blond stubble was just beginning to come in on his cheeks.

“What will you do?” Taema asked, evidently less blinded by his beauty.

A flash of emotion crossed the doctor’s face. Discomfort? It was gone before I could tell.

“How much do you know about life in San Francisco?” he asked.

I remember thinking it was a strange sort of thing to start with. I thought he’d talk about the intricacies of whatever he was going to do to us. Though it’s not like I knew what doctors did. I’d never met one before.

“Only a little,” I said.

“Well,” he began. “I have read up on where you’ve come from. It must feel almost as if you’ve traveled into the future.”

It sort of did, though I hadn’t really thought of it like that. We hadn’t seen enough of this new future yet.

We nodded noncommittally.

“There are no cases like yours anymore,” he said, and I could tell he was choosing his words with care. “The fact that you’ve survived in relatively good health as thoracopagus twins with rudimentary medical care is extraordinary. You therefore have a choice to make. We can operate and fix you, but the team I’m working with wish to separate you. Two separate hearts. Two separate bodies.”

I felt what little blood there was left in my face rush away. Separated? Of course we’d thought about it, but we’d never considered it a real possibility. My feelings were all tangled.