Second Opinion by Michael Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

role-playing adventures such as Dungeons and Dragons. By the time Thea reached her mid-teens, many of her brother's Nerd Squad had graduated from MIT or Harvard or other top colleges, usually in computer technology, engineering, or some obscure area of science. Dimitri, however, possibly the brightest of the bunch, had graduated from no place, but instead, after a brief try at a local college, had receded deeper and deeper into the isolation and recesses of the carriage house.
    'Dimitri, shut that off! Shut that off or I'm leaving!'
    The powerful music, famous in part as the accompaniment of helicopter bombing runs in the movie Apocalypse Now, continued unabated. Thea pressed her palms against her ears. She had gained some control over her reaction to loud noises and other elements of her sensory defensiveness, but certainly nothing like total mastery. Smiling in spite of herself at how little time it had taken for her brother to reestablish his outlandishness, she stood by the ornately carved oak door and called out one more time.
    After what had just transpired in the hospital, between her and her buttoned-down siblings, it was impossible not to measure them against Dimitri, who had always been something of a hero to her.
    'Dimit—'
    The music stopped mid-note. Dimitri materialized at the head of the stairs, then slid down the banister, vaulting over the end cap with practiced ease to land just two feet away from her.
    'Dimitri, you child.'
    They embraced briefly and awkwardly. Even after many hours of social role-playing improv games during various group sessions, Thea was still more reserved than many when it came to hugging—although much less so with her patients than with her friends and family.
    Two of the three boyfriends she had had in her life were neuro-atypicals, and weren't excessively touchy. The third, Rick, neurotypical and her first true lover, told her over and over that she was the smartest, sexiest, most beautiful woman he had ever known. They stayed together for more than six months in college, sharing what Thea felt was an appropriately passionate love life. Then, with little warning, Rick drifted on to a woman who was, in his words, less physically inhibited. As she did with most of the emotionally charged situations in her life, Thea intellectualized his decision, and after seeing him together with his new girl, Thea decided he was right. She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever met.
    'Welcome home, little sister.'
    'Thanks. You look good.'
    In fact, despite his perpetual dark stubble, he did. Thea remembered dense shadows under his eyes and persistent blinking, from stress or fatigue, or meds if he was taking any. Now there was less tension. In fact, there was almost a calmness to him. He looked more than ever like Petros—certainly more than Niko did—dark, swarthy, and classically Greek, with a spare physique that featured none of the soft prosperity that Niko's did.
    His loft looked like the communications center for a portion of NASA. There were five monitors, two of them large flat screens. Both displayed video games in progress. In front of several of them were game consoles—Xbox, PS2, Wü, and a couple that Thea suspected her brother might have built himself. In addition, there were oscilloscopes and screens related to several other computers. To one side of the space, in front of shelves of Star Wars models, memorabilia, and games, was a broad worktable, strewn with ongoing projects and partially dissected hard drives. The area spoke to her of isolation and solitude, and would have saddened her greatly except for the word at the hospital that, some years before, Dimitri had actually participated on a team working on the development of a complex system of electronic medical records.
    'So,' Dimitri said, 'how's the man?'
    'He died, but I resuscitated him,' Thea said matter-of-factly.
    It was much easier for her to speak with her older brother than with either of the twins. With