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I SAT NERVOUSLY in another exa a paper sheath and steel stirrups Too bad I wasn’t wearing spurs It was interesting, but not co, that all this "fe off the wide vista of an old drive-in movie screen

"Women really lay themselves down on that sacrificial altar once a year?" I asked Helena in a hoarse whisper

Yeah My voice felt like it was being closed up in a black box in nant," Helena said "I understand"

"They get used to subet used to subriynecological practice Thanks to the Web, I was able to find a woman doctor who’s tops in her field"

"I still wouldn’ttable," I muttered

Helena looked both confused and repelled "Why would anyone want to mummify a crocodile?" she asked

"You’d be surprised," I answered direly, confused to hear woether outside the closed door

I’d never re much to do with doctors, but I sure didn’t like it when the door burst open and a white-coated black woman strode in, her head bowed over a slim manila folder

"Dr Youmans refused to release any records, Dr Burnside," the woman murmured "And it says here Delilah Street is a juvenile"

"Do I look juvenile?" I asked, standing up from the office chair to meet this new doctor eye-to-eye

She lance with her own, then set the folder onto the usual sinister countertop holding a sink and a box of tissues and the array of steel implements

"Hardly" Her smile came easy "I’m Dr Sabitini Torres," she told me Then she eyed the still-seated Helena

"You said this was an eency when you made … I should say, demanded … an immediate appointoing to rise and she wasn’t going to give a centimeter

Dr Torres eyed us both … tall brunette woman with attitude, clearly past twenty-one years, and seated regal blond woman, clearly past menopause Both clearly unrelated

I looked the doctor over, grudgingly approving the sleek fuchsia silk dress glimpsed under her lab coat and the stealowing negative, an undiluted black like my hair, but her tresses were braided into a cornrow pattern as intricate as a yptian head of Nefertiti, with more Nubian features She would outclass the ancient vampire sister-pharaoh at the Karnak Hotel in a heartbeat, had both of the at the sa into her over-buckled designer bag to extract a sheaf of papers

"This is e hacked out of Dr Youmans’ computer records"

Dr Torres winced "You hacked his records? The ethics--"

"Read theested sweetly Sas obviously not her usual ainst the torture table and ski to ad fat fine

Her exquisitely penciled eyebroent up And up

She eyed me with narrowed, incisive black eyes She looked at Helena, bit her full botto right in"

"The records don’t show the type of IUD used," Helena said

"The records don’t show anything they ought to You think this … young wo?"

Helena nodded

"What?" I asked, suspicious of the knowing shorthand these toed as if they were soul sisters Ebony and ivory Like me

Oooh, Irma crooned in my head I don’t like this conversational trend, either Cool doc, though What the hell lipstick color is she wearing? Be sure to ask Would look even better on us than Midnight Cherry Shimmer does

Will you please, I told Irma, not remind me of intimate episodes in a clinical house of horrors like this?

I bit e private emotional and sexual leap with Ric these last several weeks I was having trouble regardingproblem

"That would be …

"That would be … obscene," Helena answered, standing

"You’re her mother?" Dr Torres

"Here and now, yes"

I let aze snap to Helena I couldn’t believe what she’d said She was … adopting

For a never-adopted child now an adult, that was

Did even she understand how this would i furious Hearing the never-used phrase "her… too little too late

This visit to Wichita’srateful bitch It was giving me emotional whiplash

"I’m here," I re "When two strong women meet …" They were east and west and black and white, and both damn scientists

Helena’s faded eyes turned to , Delilah" She eyed Dr Torres "A sonogram"

"And how," I asked, "am I to drape my chic paper sheath for that procedure?"

Dr Torres’s low chuckle escalated into an infectious laugh,her the woman in the fuchsia dress first and the doctor second She eyed ive you such a runrap you ant to wear it outa here"

I grasped at her good hu ?" I bargained like a kid I’d seen Vegas tourists getting that treatside the "beachy" hotel pools Nobody had ever done my hair for me before, as far back as I could remember

"Absolutely"

That is how I ended up drinking an awful lot of bottled water while three nurses braided nificent mass of shiny blue-black plaits The women were so adept they yptian-style linen gown

Was I going to come out of this a Macy’s Parade balloon, a taco wrap, or a fashion model? While I drank the required water, the familiar fashioned itself into an intricate basket-weave ankle bracelet in slow motion to keep me entertained