The Good Doctor's Tales Folio Five by Randall Farmer Read Free Book Online

own households rather than accepting the Transforms foisted on them by blind luck and the doctors who worked with Transform Sickness.  This wasn’t as hot a topic on the Council as it was among the general population of Focuses; the Focus Network as a whole had begun, last year, independent lobbying efforts for this right.  This hadn’t gone over well with the first Focuses, who had decided the general population of Focuses had no right to independent opinion s about anything.  Opinions were the sole prerogative of the UFA Council.  Their edict , however, didn’t make the original problem go away.  Too many households ended up with new Transforms who didn’t match the personality and tenor of the household.  People like Johnny survived because he got lucky and some Focus had a slot available when he transformed, while upstanding decent men and women died, because they weren ’ t so lucky, and no slot was available for them.  The Focuses wanted control so decent people would survive and made it into their households, not thugs and criminals.
    Their next agenda item concerned the Focuses who were not coping: the young ones, the ones who were overwhelmed, and the ones who were just plain cruel to their people.  They talked about the mentoring program, where older Focuses helped the younger ones get started, and tried to figure out why the program didn’t seem to work as well as they thought it should .  The big problem seemed to be too many new Focuses and not enough interest by Faith Corrigan.  Faith, one of the first Focuses, headed up the mentoring program.  She and her cronies hadn’t expanded in number, as had the number of new Focuses.   These days she picked and chose, helping her favorite new Focuses and ignoring the rest.  The Council decided to formally request Faith increase the number of mentors.
    Each of them read out their status reports .  Polly and Cathy brought up new problems , both too intractable to solve in a simple discussion; both tabled for later.  Connie brought up an old problem , Federal and State taxes, and which States had recently enacted new tax laws harm ful to Transform households .
    Sometimes the group was even able to do things to help. Not very often.
    The meeting was all very ordinary and mundane.  One of Esther’s people took notes and there was nothing in those completely accurate notes that couldn’t have been published in any newspaper in the country.  The official Council meetings were the completely above board and public face of the UFA, and didn’t touch the dark stuff.
     
    At lunch, as they all gathered and talked and caught up on news, Tonya caught Ginny slipping away with Polly.  Tonya found herself a seat by the entry to the hall and leaned back with her eyes closed, looking unsociable.
    Ginny and Polly made their way to the master bedroom and shut the door.  They spoke in low voices, but not low enough.  Tonya had noticed years ago that even Focuses underestimated Focus enhanced hear ing .  Tonya was nine years past her transformation, her hearing was exceptional, and eavesdropping didn’t trouble her morals in the slightest .
    “So tell me what’s going on , ” Polly said , gently.
    Ginny took a moment before she answered, her voice shaky. “I need to tell you officially. I’m going to be resigning my position after this meeting.”
    “Ginny, that’s terrible!” Polly said. “What happened?”
    Ginny hesitated again .  “ My m oney issues are now a money problem,” Ginny said.  “We can’t afford the travel costs anymore.”
    “Oh, no!” Polly was all warm sympathy. “I thought you had things under control.”
    “Well … ” Ginny paused for a long moment.  “Unfortunately, last Sunday, someone decided to publish the fact that Mike was a Transform , in the local newspaper.  It was a big headline.  ‘Local Pediatrician Victim of Transform Sickness.’  M ost mothers don’t want to take their kids to a Transform doctor.