'There,' he said. 'All better.' He gazed at her for a few mo-ments, deciding on what he should do. Finally, he asked, 'Would you excuse me for a minute?'
Valerie nodded. Landry headed for the hospital phone. Valerie resumed her meditation on the bottom of the glass. An avalanche of thought and emotion coursed through her. It has to be true, she thought. Nothing else makes sense. Noth-ing else explains everything. She gave no thought to the how of it all. She knew nothing of surgery or medical science. If someone had told her before that such an operation were impossible, she would have prob-ably agreed without thinking about it. Now, told that it was quite possible, she just as readily believed it with as little thought. Medicine was magic to her, an arcane, occult art that merely existed, causelessly, in a world where so many aspects of technology seemed simply to be there when most needed. Or when least wanted. The how did not matter. What mattered most to Valerie was the why. Why do that? Why take my baby? The baby is mine. She doesn't look anything like her parents. She must be mine. The thoughts cascaded over and over. Why take my baby when there are donor mothers all over? When there are other ways? Why do something so complicated, so risky, when there must have been safer ways? Open ways, legal ways.
She was certain that what Dr. Fletcher did must be illegal. Why else would she hide it? A cold anger gestated within her soul.
'Valerie?'
She looked up. Dr. Fletcher towered over her. She stared, speechless, as the woman sat across from her in the same seat in which the medical technologist had moments ago exposed the doctor's crime.
'I'd like to talk to you,' Fletcher said, 'about the possibility of a bone-marrow transplant, if that would be all right.'
Valerie said nothing for a moment, then asked, 'What hap-pens to fetuses after they're aborted?' The question caught Fletcher off guard. It took her a mo-ment to compose her thoughts. 'That's not a pleasant topic even for doctors to discuss.'
'Try me.'
'Well,' she said, striving for as neutral and sympathetic a tone as possible, 'some hospitals just dispose of the fetuses along with the other bits and pieces they normally remove during operations. Some pathology departments catalogue and preserve the interesting ones. Some incinerate them, some bury them. Some use parts of the fetus, such as the liver, pan-creas, and brain tissue, in research and treatment of other patients. There are ethical review boards that-'
'What happened to my baby?'
Fletcher gazed intently at Valerie. The young woman stared resolutely at the tabletop.
'It was cremated.'
Valerie's voice nearly exploded. 'That's a goddamned lie.'
People at the other tables turned to stare with the eager cu-riosity of co-workers watching an assault on one of their less loved number.
Evelyn knew that what she said in the next second and how she said it would either create the worst enemy she could ever have or soften the shock enough for her to understand.
'Yes, Valerie,' she said softly. 'Renata was once yours.' Valerie slammed her fist against the table. A shuddering sob escaped from her. Gazing around at the gawking onlookers, Evelyn tried to quiet her. 'Please, Valerie. Come to my office and I'll explain everything. It's not what you thi-'
'I came in for an abortion,' she shouted, 'and you stole my baby!' Everyone in the room fell silent and turned to watch in alarm. 'Some sort of monstrous experiment! How could you think you'd get away with it?'
Evelyn reached out to Valerie. The door to the cafeteria opened. In the doorway stood a tall man with silver- grey hair. His ruddy face set in an angry glower, he spoke with loud au-thority.
'Doctor Fletcher.'
Fletcher spun about to face Jacob Lawrence, the hospital administrator. Behind him stood Mark Landry.
'Would you mind,' Lawrence said, 'coming up to my of-fice?' For a moment, sick panic showed in Fletcher's face, followed by a hardening resolve. She stiffly turned to Valerie.
'Thank you, Ms. Dalton. You may go home now. You've done quite enough for today.' She followed a silent Lawrence through the doors, leaving Valerie alone in a circle of curious nurses, residents, and miscellaneous employees and visitors.
'What was that all about?' asked one nurse, staring coolly at Valerie.
