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donor for your sister?"

Anna shrugs "Kind of The way parents ask questions that they already have answered in their heads You weren't the reason that the whole second grade stayed in for recess, were you? Or, You want soht?"

"Did you ever tell your parents that you weren't comfortable with the choice they'd made for you?"

Anna pushes away froht have complained a couple of times But they're Kate's parents, too"

Sin to hitch for me Traditionally, parents make decisions for a child, because presu out for his or her best interests But if they are blinded, instead, by the best interests of another one of their children, the system breaks down And somewhere, underneath all the rubble, are casualties like Anna

The question is, did she instigate this lawsuit because she truly feels that she can make better choices about her own medical care than her parents can, or because she wants her parents to hear her for once when she cries?

We wind up in front of the polar bears, Trixie and Norton For the first tihts up She watches Kobe, Trixie's cub--the newest addition to the zoo He swats at his et her to play "The last tiave it to another zoo"

She is right; memories of the articles in the ProJo swi public relations move for Rhode Island

"Do you think he wonders what he did to get himself sent away?"

We are trained, as guardians ad litens of depression We kno to read body language, and flat affect, and s Anna's hands are clenched around the old

Either this girl loses her sister, I think, or she's going to lose herself

"Julia," she asks, "would it be okay if ent home?"

The closer we get to her house, Anna distances herself froiven that the physical space between us reainst theofat the streets that bleed by "What happens next?"

"I' to talk to everyone else Your mom and dad, your brother and sister Your lawyer"

Now a dilapidated Jeep is parked in the driveway, and the front door of the house is open I turn off the ignition, but Anna makes no move to release her seat belt "Will you walk me in?"

"Why?"

"Becauseto kill me"

This Anna--genuinely skittish--bears little resemblance to the one I've spent the past hour with I wonder how a girl ate a lawsuit, and afraid to face her own mother "How come?"

"I sort of left today without telling her where I was going"

"You do that a lot?"

Anna shakes her head "Usually I do whatever I'm told"

Well, I aerald sooner or later I get out of the car, and wait for Anna to do the sarooh the front door

She is not the foe I've built her up to be For one thing, Anna's hter She has dark hair and haunted eyes and is pacing The moment it creaks open, she runs to Anna "For God's sake," she cries, shaking her daughter by the shoulders, "where have you been? Do you have any idea--"

"Excuse erald I'd like to introduceuardian ad litem appointed by the court"

She slides her arm around Anna, a stiff show of tenderness "Thank you for bringing Anna hoht now--"

"Actually, I was hoping I could speak to you I've been asked by the court to present ot a few minutes--"

"I don't," Sara says abruptly "Now isn't really a good tihter has just been read in the doorway of the kitchen: I hope you're happy

"I'm sorry to hear that"

"I a by to talk to Anna And I know you're just doing your job But this is all going to work itself out, really It's ayou that in a day or so"

She takes a step backward, challenging lance at Anna, who catches my eye and shakes her head alo for now

Who is she protecting--her mother, or herself?

A red flag unravels across my mind: Anna is thirteen Anna lives with hercounsel How can Anna possibly live in the saerald?

"Anna, I'll call you toerald, I leave her house, headed for the one place on earth I never wanted to go

The law offices of Campbell Alexander look exactly the way I've pictured thelass, at the end of a hallway lined with a Persian runner, through two heavyat the irl with porcelain features and a telephone earpiece hidden under the nore her and walk toward the only closed door "Hey!" she yells "You can't go in there!"

"He'll be expecting me," I say

Careat fury His shirtsleeves are rolled up to the elbow He needs a haircut "Kerri," he says, "see if you can find some Jenny Jones transcript about identical tho don't know that they--"

"Hello, Campbell"

First, he stops writing Then he lifts his head "Julia" He gets to his feet, a schoolboy caught in an indecent act

I step inside and close the door behind erald's case"

A dog that I haven't noticed till now takes its place by Campbell's side "I'd heard that you went to law school"

Harvard On full scholarship

"Providence is a pretty tight placeI kept expecting" His voice trails off, and he shakes his head "Well, I thought for sure we'd run into each other before now"

He sain--the year I realized love doesn't follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having sounattainable "It's not all that hard to avoid someone, when you want to," I answer coolly "You of all people should know"

CAMPBELL

I'M REMARKABLY CALM, really, until the principal of Ponaganset High School starts to give me a telephone lecture on political correctness "For God's sake," he sputters "What kind of roup of Native Aue 'The Whiteys'?"

"I ie that you did when you picked the Chieftains as your school mascot"

"We've been the Ponaganset Chieftains since 1970," the principal argues

"Yes, and they've been ansett tribe since they were born"

"It's derogatory And politically incorrect"

"Unfortunately," I point out, "you can't sue a person for political incorrectness, or clearly you would have been handed a suo However, on the flip side, the Constitution does protect various individual rights to A Native Agest that the Whiteys would be granted permission to convene even if your ridiculous threat of a lawsuit ed to make its way to court For that ainst hueneral, since surely you'd also like to stifle the inherent racism implicit in the White House, the White Mountains, and the White Pages" There is dead silence on the other end of the phone "Shall I assuate after all?"

After he hangs up on me, I push the intercoot nothing to worry about"

As I settle down to the h He's asleep, curled like a braided rug to the left of my desk His paitches

That's the life, she said to me, as atched a puppy chase its own tail That's what I want to be next

I had laughed You would wind up as a cat, I told her They don't need anyone else

I need you, she replied

Well, I said Maybe I'll come back as catnip

I pressenough sleep; first there was that e, as if it is his fault, and then focus al pad New client--a drug dealer caught by the prosecution on videotape There's no way out of a conviction on this one, unless the guy has an identical twin his mother kept secret

Which, come to think of it

The door opens, and without glancing up I fire a directive at Kerri "See if you can find some Jenny Jones transcript about identical tho don't know that they--"