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I thought of the quiet la architecture of this house, the pair ofwith star jasuessed at the strange dra out within these ordinary stucco walls

"The ela said, "isn’t concerned, doesn’t try to get away One of them shoots him with a dart He bares his teeth and hisses but doesn’t even try to pluck the needle out He drops what’s left of the second tangerine, struggles hard to s the bite he has in his oes to sleep They leave with the ain Rod doesn’t co, until Christifts until late Christ to be the same No way out, and I know it"

Finally she tossed back her relass down on the table so hard that it sounded like a gunshot

Until this moment she had exhibited only fear and er frooddamn blood samples the day after Christmas"

"Who?"

"The project at Wyvern"

"Project?"

"And once a month ever since--their saot to pay a rent in blood just to be allowed to go on living in it"

"Wyvern has been closed a year and a half"

"Not all of it Sos don’t die Can’t die No h she was thin alela had always been pretty in her way Porcelain skin, a graceful brow, high cheekbones, sculpted nose, a generous mouth that balanced the otherwise vertical lines of her face and paid out a wealth of smiles--these qualities, combined with her selfless heart, made her lovely in spite of the fact that her skull was too near the skin, her skeleton too ill-concealed beneath the illusion of immortality that the flesh provides Noever, her face was hard and cold and ugly, fiercely sharpened at every edge by the grinding wheel of anger

"If I ever refuse to give them the monthly sample, they’ll kill me I’m sure of that Or lock me away in some secret hospital out there where they can keep a closer watch on me"

"What’s the sample for? What’re they afraid of?"

She seeether

"Angela?"

I gave a saela drew it In ht detect early indications of skin and eye cancers fro the saood, I resented the invasion, and I could iine how deeply I would resent it if it were compulsory rather than voluntary

She said, "Maybe I shouldn’t tell you Even though you need to know to…to defend yourself Telling you all of it is like lighting a fuse Sooner or later, your whole world blows up"

"Was thea disease?"

"I wish it were a disease Wouldn’t that be nice? Maybe I’d be cured by now Or dead Dead would be better than what’s colass, ht she would hurl it across the room

"The monkey never bit me," she insisted, "never clawed me, never even touched me, for God’s sake But they won’t believe me I’m not sure even Rod believed me They won’t take any chances They made me…Rod made me submit to sterilization"

Tears stood in her eyes, unshed but shilass candleholders

"I was forty-five years old then," she said, "and I’d never had a child, because I was already sterile We’d tried so hard to have a baby--fertility doctors, hor worked"

Oppressed by the suffering in Angela’s voice, I was barely able to ree to stand, to put my arms around her To be the nurse this tie in her voice, she said, "And still the bastards ery, didn’t just tie my tubes but removed my ovaries, cut me, cut out all hope" Her voice aliven up hope anyway, or pretended to give it up But to have it cut out of me…The humiliation of it, the hopelessness They wouldn’t even tell me why Rod took me out to the base the day after Christmas, supposedly for an interview about the monkey, about its behavior He wouldn’t elaborate Very mysterious He took me into this place…this place out there that even most people on the base didn’t know existed They sedated ery without my permission And when it was all over, the sons of bitches wouldn’t even tell ot to s felt weak I hadn’t been expecting to hear a story of this weight

Although I wanted to colass was still sealed in the hard shell of her fist Grinding anger had sharpened her once-pretty face into a collection of knives I didn’t think she would wantaardly at the table for seconds that were interminable, not sure what to do, I went at last to the back door and double-checked the dead bolt to confired

"I know Rod loved er in her voice didn’t soften "It broke his heart, just broke him entirely, to do what he had to do Broke his heart to cooperate with theery He was never the same after that"

I turned and saw that her fist was cocked The blades of her face were polished by candlelight

"And if his superiors had understood how close Rod and I had always been, they would have known he couldn’t go on keeping secrets from me, not when I’d suffered so uessed

"Yes And I forgave hiave him for what had been done toI could do to nurse hier was veined with pity and with sorrow "So scared he had no joy in anything anymore Finally he killed hi left to cut out of me"

She lowered her fist She opened it She stared at the cordial glass--and then carefully set it on the table

"Angela, rong with the es of candle flames danced in her eyes Her soleoddess

I repeated the question: "What rong with the ela spoke, her voice was hardly louder than a whisper: "It wasn’t a monkey"

I knew that I had heard her correctly, yet her words made no sense "Not a monkey? But you said--"

"It appeared to be a monkey"

"Appeared?"

"And it was a

"Was and wasn’t," she whispered "And that’s rong with it"

She did not seean to wonder if her fantastic story had been more fantasy than truth--and if she knew the difference