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

His whole practice folded up overnight.”
    “Oh, no,” Polly said .  “How bad?” 
    “Pretty bad,” Ginny said.  H er voice quavered, hinting at tears.  “He was bringing in a quarter of my whole household’s income.  Now it’s gone.  And…”  She swore under her breath as she tried to bring herself back under control.  “…our home went bad.  We might possibly be able to cope if we didn’t need to move.  But I can’t move the juice any more.  The headaches are so bad I can’t even think straight.  If we don’t move…if we don’t…if we don’t move,” her voice had gone high as she forced the words out, “I’m going to need to start cutting people out of my household.  I can’t support everyone.” The term ‘cutting out’ was an old Focus euphemism for abandoning Transforms by the curbside to die.
    “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Polly said .  “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know,” Ginny said.  “We can’t afford our next move, or the location .  Still, w e have to move.  I shouldn’t have even come here, but I’d already made the down payment on the bus rental, and I thought that if I just got rid of the headache for a little while, I would be able to think of something.”
    “What about going gypsy?” Polly said . “Emily Cottsfield took her household gypsy a couple of months ago, and she’s doing better now .”   Cottsfield had ruined her people, making them nearly unfit for gainful employment , because she followed Wini’s advice about how to run a household.
    “ W e don’t possess any o f the necessary skills.  If I had a hint this was coming, I might...   I…oh, damn.  I’m sorry,” she said, as the tears threatened again.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to come in here and do this.  I’m sorry.  Just leave me alone for a minute.  I’ll be all right.”
    “Oh, Ginny, if there’s anything I can do…”
    “There’s nothing you can do,” Ginny said, her voice hoarse with tears.  “ L eave me alone , please .  I’ll be all right by the time the meeting starts again.  Just leave me alone.”
    Polly came out of the bedroom and Tonya stayed silent , thinking and still pretending to rest.  She wondered if Ginny would figure out some honest way of staying afloat, or if she would finally cross that line she ha d been avoiding for so long.
    A colder thought swam up from the depths of Tonya’s mind .  Who told the newspapers about Ginny’s pediatrician?  Ginny didn’t follow the party line at times, and she was too honest to be controlled.  Boxed into a corner, Ginny would be forced to sell her soul to one of the older Focus es to keep her household alive .
    Tonya didn’t know who was behind Ginny’s troubles.  She knew better than to ask, but she wondered.  Some of the first Focuses were far over the line between legal and illegal, and they didn’t tolerate opposition.
     

Gilgamesh Talks To Sinclair
    The wind rattled the door of the phone booth as it whistled off the bay and around Candlestick Park.  The Stick stood forlorn, waiting for spring, and the Giants, and the first crack of the baseball bat, while Gilgamesh ran through his list of phone numbers for the peripatetic Sinclair.  Someone not Sinclair picked up the phone on the call to phone booth number 4, more quarters into the trash.  Sinclair himself picked up when Gilgamesh rang phone booth 7.
    “Me,” Sinclair said.  His voice was barely audible, and not from a bad connection.   With the rattle of the phone booth and whistling of the wind, no one but a Crow could have heard him.
    “You found her,” Gilgamesh said.
    “Yes.  Your Tiamat’s in the CDC’s Virginia complex, about the worst place imaginable as far as gristle dross is concerned.”
    “ T hat bad?”
    “No, the place is actually worse,” Sinclair said , annoyed .  “If the Arm spends any amount of time there , she’s going to come out damaged.”
    “Then I’d better get working on