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Pretty Minds

"We were doctors," Az began

"Coseons, to be precise," Maddy said "We’ve both performed the operation hundreds of times And e ical Standards"

Tally’s eyes widened "The Pretty Committee?"

Maddy sical Congress That’s when all the cities share data on the operation"

Tally nodded Cities worked very hard to stay independent of one another, but the Pretty Colobal institution that made sure pretties were all more or less the same It would ruin the whole point of the operation if the people from one city wound up prettier than everyone else

Like ed the fantasy that one day she eneration would look like In school, of course, they always es andpeople’s pupils when they looked at different faces

"At the sa so to make the operation safer"

"Safer?" Tally asked

"A few people still die each year, as with any surgery," he said "Fro else"

Tally bit her lip She’d never heard that "Oh"

"I found that there were complications from the anesthetic used in the operation Tiny lesions in the brain

Barely visible, even with the beststupid "What’s a lesion?"

"Basically it’s a bunch of cells that don’t look right," Az said "Like a wound, or a cancer, or just so there"

"But you couldn’t justsay that," David said He rolled his eyes toward Tally "Doctors"

Maddy ignored her son "When Az showedThe local committee had millions of scans in its database Not the stuff they put in medical textbooks, but raw data from pretties all over the world The lesions turned up everywhere"

Tally frowned "You mean, people were sick?"

"They didn’t seem to be And the lesions weren’t cancerous, because they didn’t spread Almost everyone had them, and they were always in exactly the same place" She pointed to a spot on the top of her head

"A bit to the left, dear," Az said, dropping a white cube into his tea

Maddy obliged him, then continued "Most importantly, almost everyone all over the world had these lesions If they were a health hazard, ninety-nine percent of the population would show some kind of symptoms"

"But they weren’t natural?" Tally asked

"No Only post-ops - pretties, I lies did They were definitely a result of the operation"

Tally shifted in her chair The thought of a weird little mystery in everyone’s brain made her queasy "Did you find out what caused thehed "In one sense, we did Az and I looked very closely at all the negatives - that is, the few pretties who didn’t have the lesions - and tried to figure out why they were different What ender, physical size, intelligence factors, genetic atives They weren’t any different from everyone else"

"Until we discovered an odd coincidence," Az said

"Their jobs," Maddy said

"Jobs?"

"Every negative worked in the sahters, wardens, doctors, politicians, and anyone orked for Special Circumstances Everyone with those jobs didn’t have the lesions; all the other pretties did"

"So you guys were okay?"

Az nodded "We tested ourselves, and ere negative"

"Otherwise, ouldn’t be sitting here," Maddy said quietly