“Unfortunately, you’d already been sent to surgery, so we’ve had to wait for you to recover. Now, time is critical. The next busload of people have to be implanted before their sedation wears off.” He looked at his hands, then finally raised his head. “Mrs. Lloyd, I don’t like to put it this way, but I must. We have no option. Your daughter must have this operation now. If you can calm her down, we can do it with a local anesthetic. If not, we’ll have to put her under. She’ll probably be fine, but there’s a greater risk that way. Do you understand that?

She leaped up, knocking away his hand as he tried to stop her. “I only understand—” She gasped as someone took a red hot iron and rammed it up from her stomach into her chest. She grabbed for the wheelchair. “I won’t let you touch my daughter!” she shouted. Then her body jerked violently, and she started to topple over, the wheelchair tipping beneath her weight.

Dr. Gould grabbed her, pulling her back upright. For a moment she thought she was going to faint, and she didn’t resist as he pushed her firmly back down into the wheelchair.

“Mrs. Lloyd,” he said, leaning over and peering into her face, “you must control your anger. It’s your implantation that’s causing the pain you’re experiencing now.”

She shook her head, drawing deep, hungry breaths of air. “No. It’s my stomach.”

“Just trust me. I’ll explain it all to you later. But you must not get angry, or the pain will return. Do you understand that much?”

She didn’t, but she slowly nodded.

“Good. Now I’ll say it again. You can either help us with your daughter or you can refuse. Either way we will proceed. Will you help us, or do we do it without you?”

She nodded, not daring to think, not daring to feel, lest she call back the searing pain. Tears welled up, and her lower lip trembled. “Yes, I’ll help you. Where is she?”

As they wheeled the hospital bed down the long hallway toward her, Madeline saw the tiny figure hunched up in a pitiful little ball, exhausted sobs racking the body. She felt a sharp pain in her heart far more intense than the blows that had hammered at her stomach. She swept Becky up into her arms, clinging to the trembling little body as desperately as Becky clung to her. For five minutes they sat in the hallway until finally the sobs subsided, the heart stopped its furious pounding, and Becky pulled away and looked around. Though her eyes were still swollen and her cheeks a blotchy red, her normal adventuresome spirit was returning, and when Mrs. Carter brought green gowns for both Becky and her mother and they went into surgery, she was bouncing with the newness of it all.