It was pitiful the way I had to cover my mouth to keep from sobbing. The tears I couldn’t control; I could only turn away so that the other Dolores didn’t see. I lay down on top of the blankets and pulled them around me. It was just after noon, but I closed my eyes and welcomed the replay of my horrible spawning memory. At least that was only a dream.

I awoke to stillness. It must have been night. The door was closed, the overhead lights put out. There were no windows through which I could see the natural moon, but above each of the three beds, there were colored glass windows behind which lights shone as though to take the moon’s place. They had not been there in 1906 when I was extracted or in the fall of 1907 when I was discharged; neither could they bring a Mem much comfort unless the extract knew the sun and moon existed—and they weren’t aware that anything did.

Something had changed while I slept—I knew without having to be told—but I stayed in bed for a moment, pretending it hadn’t. Avoiding a glance at the now silent Dolores in the other bed, I lay in mine, wrapped in my blanket like a child who’d swaddled herself. I admired the light made lavender and pink and green by the glass, and had no way to know whether the hour was too unreasonable to find a student or a Banker. But then, I wasn’t certain I had a use for reason anymore. The other Dolores certainly didn’t.

I found someone at a station two halls over, her crisp white cap pinned notably farther back on her head than it should have been. Something about the woman, the ill-fitting nature of her uniform, made me guess she was new. Or maybe it was simply the music playing too loudly on the radio on her desk.

“Congratulations,” I ventured.

She seemed nervous even before her eyes met mine. “I beg your pardon?”

To my disappointment, she turned a knob on her radio and the festive music that poured from the lovely cone speaker and felt so out of place in this hall reduced to a whisper.

“I thought you must be new.” When she didn’t answer, I continued, wanting to put her at ease. “There were no nurses here when I left. None that I noticed, at least. I was never sure why they entrusted such work to students, but it seems they’ve finally gotten wise, wouldn’t you say? In any case, just now I was looking for a Banker.”