“I really would prefer to.”

He snapped his comm shut. “I’ll meet you in the courtroom, then. The bailiff will take you in.”

“Can you tell my Gran where I am? She’s waiting in the court, I think.”

“Sorry. I have other cases to cope with—I can’t really play messenger, I’m afraid.”

When he left the little office, I felt as though I’d been switched off. The drugs weighted my eyelids and soothed my panic and outrage. Later, I’d be livid, but right then I could barely keep from folding my arms on the grimy table and resting my head on them.

The hearing went so fast I barely even noticed it. I sat with my lawyer and the doctors stood up and entered their reports into evidence—I don’t think they read them aloud, even, just squirted them at the court reporter. My Gran sat behind me, on a chair that was separated from the court proper by a banister. She had her hand on my shoulder the whole time, and it felt like an anvil there to my dopey muscles.

“All right, Art,” my jackass lawyer said, giving me a prod. “Here’s your turn. Stand up and keep it brief.”

I struggled to my feet. The judge was an Asian woman about my age, a small round head set atop a shapeless robe and perched on a high seat behind a high bench.

“Your Honor,” I said. I didn’t know what to say next. All my wonderful rhetoric had fled me. The judge looked at me briefly, then went back to tapping her comm. Maybe she was playing solitaire or looking at porn. “I asked to have a moment to address the Court. My lawyer suggested that I not do this, but I insisted.

“Here’s the thing. There’s no way for me to win here. There’s a long story about how I got here. Basically, I had a disagreement with some of my coworkers who were doing something that I thought was immoral. They decided that it would be best for their plans if I was out of the way for a little while, so that I couldn’t screw them up, so they coopered this up, told the London police that I’d gone nuts.

“So I ended up in an institution here for observation, on the grounds that I was dangerously paranoid. When the people at the institution asked me about it, I told them what had happened. Because I was claiming that the people who had me locked up were conspiring to make me look paranoid, the doctors decided that I was paranoid. But tell me, how could I demonstrate my non-paranoia? I mean, as far as I can tell, the second I was put away for observation, I was guaranteed to be found wanting. Nothing I could have said or done would have made a difference.”

The judge looked up from her comm and gave me another once-over. I was wearing my best day clothes, which were my basic London shabby chic white shirt and gray wool slacks and narrow blue tie. It looked natty enough in the UK, but I knew that in the US it made me look like an overaged door-to-door Mormon. The judge kept looking at me. Call to action, I thought. End your speeches with a call to action. It was another bit of goofy West Coast Vulcan Mind Control, courtesy of Linda’s fucking ex.

“So here’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to stand up here and let you know what had happened to me and ask you for advice. If we assume for the moment that I’m not crazy, how should I demonstrate that here in the court?”

The judge rolled her head from shoulder to shoulder, making glossy black waterfalls of her hair. The whole hearing is very fuzzy for me, but that hair! Who ever heard of a civil servant with good hair?

“Mr. Berry,” she said, “I’m afraid I don’t have much to tell you. It’s my responsibility to listen to qualified testimony and make a ruling. You haven’t presented any qualified testimony to support your position. In the absence of such testimony, my only option is to remand you into the custody of the Department of Mental Health until such time as a group of qualified professionals see fit to release you.” I expected her to bang a gavel, but instead she just scritched at her comm and squirted the order at the court reporter and I was led away.

I didn’t even have a chance to talk to Gran.

Now I’ve got a comm, I hardly know what to do with it. Call Gran? Call Audie? Call Fede? Login to an EST chat and see who’s up to what?

How about the Jersey clients?

There’s an idea. Give them everything, all the notes I built for Fede and his damned patent application, sign over the exclusive rights to the patent for one dollar and services rendered (i.e., getting me a decent lawyer and springing me from this damned hole).

My last lawyer was a dickhead. He met me at the courtroom fifteen minutes before the hearing, in a private room whose fixtures had the sticky filthiness of a bus-station toilet. “Art, yes, hello, I’m Allan Mendelson, your attorney. How are you?

He was well over 6’6”, but weighed no more than 120 lbs and hunched over his skinny ribs while he talked, dry-washing his hands. His suit looked like the kind of thing you’d see on a Piccadilly Station homeless person, clean enough and well-enough fitting, but with an indefinable air of cheapness and falsehood.

“Well, not so good,” I said. “They upped my meds this morning, so I’m pretty logy. Can’t concentrate. They said it was to keep me calm while I was transported. Dirty trick, huh?”

“What?” he’d been browsing through his comm, tapping through what I assumed was my file. “No, no. It’s perfectly standard. This isn’t a trial, it’s a hearing. We’re all on the same side, here.” He tapped some more. “Your side.”

“Good,” Art said. “My grandmother came down, and she wants to testify on my behalf.”

“Oooh,” the fixer said, shaking his head. “No, not a great idea. She’s not a mental health professional, is she?”

“No,” I said. “But she’s known me all my life. She knows I’m not a danger to myself or others.”

“Sorry, that’s not appropriate. We all love our families, but the court wants to hear from people who have qualified opinions on this subject. Your doctors will speak, of course.”

“Do I get to speak?”

“If you really want to. That’s not a very good idea, either, though, I’m afraid. If the judge wants to hear from you, she’ll address you. Otherwise, your best bet is to sit still, no fidgeting, look as sane and calm as you can.”

I felt like I had bricks dangling from my limbs and one stuck in my brain. The new meds painted the world with translucent whitewash, stuffed cotton in my ears and made my tongue thick. Slowly, my brain absorbed all of this.

“You mean that my Gran can’t talk, I can’t talk, and all the court hears is the doctors?”

“Don’t be difficult, Art. This is a hearing to determine your competency. A group of talented mental health professionals have observed you for the past week and they’ve come to some conclusions based on those observations. If everyone who came before the court for a competency hearing brought out a bunch of irrelevant witnesses and made long speeches, the court calendar would be backlogged for decades. Then other people who were in for observation wouldn’t be able to get their hearings. It wouldn’t work for anyone. You see that, right?”

“Not really. I really think it would be better if I got to testify on my behalf. I have that right, don’t I?”

He sighed and looked very put-upon. “If you insist, I’ll call you to speak. But as your lawyer, it’s my professional opinion that you should not do this.”

“I really would prefer to.”

He snapped his comm shut. “I’ll meet you in the courtroom, then. The bailiff will take you in.”

“Can you tell my Gran where I am? She’s waiting in the court, I think.”

“Sorry. I have other cases to cope with—I can’t really play messenger, I’m afraid.”

When he left the little office, I felt as though I’d been switched off. The drugs weighted my eyelids and soothed my panic and outrage. Later, I’d be livid, but right then I could barely keep from folding my arms on the grimy table and resting my head on them.

“Lovely. Let’s eat now.”

Art meant to log in and see if Colonelonic had dredged up any intel on Linda’s ex, but he found himself trapped on the sunporch with Gran and the Father and a small stack of linen tablecloths hairy with embroidered wishes. He traced their braille with his fingertips, recognizing the names of his childhood. Gran and the Father talked late into the night, and the next thing Art knew, Gran was shaking him awake. He was draped in a tablecloth that he’d pulled over himself like a blanket, and she folded it and put it away while he ungummed his eyes and staggered off to bed.

Audie called him early the next morning, waking him up.

“Hey, Art! It’s your cousin!”

“Audie?”

“You don’t have any other female cousins, so yes, that’s a good guess. Your Gran told me you were in Canada for a change.”

“Yup, I am. Just for a little holiday.”

“Well, it’s been long enough. What do you do in London again?”

“I’m a consultant for Virgin/Deutsche Telekom.” He has this part of the conversation every time he speaks with Audie. Somehow, the particulars of his job just couldn’t seem to stick in her mind.

“What kind of consultant?”

“User experience. I help design their interactive stuff. How’s Ottawa?”

“They pay you for that, huh? Well, nice work if you can get it.”

Art believed that Audie was being sincere in her amazement at his niche in the working world, and not sneering at all. Still, he had to keep himself from saying something snide about the lack of tangible good resulting from keeping MPs up to date on the poleconomy of semiconductor production in PacRim sweatshops.

“They sure do. How’s Ottawa?”

“Amazing. And why London? Can’t you find work at home?”

“Yeah, I suppose I could. This just seemed like a good job at the time. How’s Ottawa?

“Seemed, huh? You going to be moving back, then? Quitting?”

“Not anytime soon. How’s Ottawa?”

“Ottawa? It’s beautiful this time of year. Alphie and Enoch and I were going to go to the trailer for the weekend, in Calabogie. You could drive up and meet us. Swim, hike. We’ve built a sweatlodge near the dock; you and Alphie could bake up together.”

“Wow,” Art said, wishing he had Audie’s gift for changing the subject. “Sounds great. But. Well, you know. Gotta catch up with friends here in Toronto. It’s been a while, you know. Well.” The image of sharing a smoke-filled dome with Alphie’s naked, cross-legged, sweat-slimed paunch had seared itself across his waking mind.

“No? Geez. Too bad. I’d really hoped that we could reconnect, you and me and Alphie. We really should spend some more time together, keep connected, you know?”

“Well,” Art said. “Sure. Yes.” Relations or no, Audie and Alphie were basically strangers to him, and it was beyond him why Audie thought they should be spending time together, but there it was. Reconnect, keep connected. Hippies. “We should. Next time I’m in Canada, for sure, we’ll get together, I’ll come to Ottawa. Maybe Christmas. Skating on the canal, OK?”

“Very good,” Audie said. “I’ll pencil you in for Christmas week. Here, I’ll send you the wish lists for Alphie and Enoch and me, so you’ll know what to get.”

Xmas wishlists in July. Organized hippies! What planet did his cousins grow up on, anyway?

“Thanks, Audie. I’ll put together a wishlist and pass it along to you soon, OK?” His bladder nagged at him. “I gotta run now, all right?”

“Great. Listen, Art, it’s been, well, great to talk to you again. It really makes me feel whole to connect with you. Don’t be a stranger, all right?”

“Yeah, OK! Nice to talk to you, too. Bye!”

“Safe travels and wishes fulfilled,” Audie said.

“You too!”

Father Ferlenghetti showed up at Art’s Gran’s at 7PM, just as the sun began to set over the lake, and Art and he shared lemonade on Gran’s sunporch and watched as the waves on Lake Ontario turned harshly golden.

“So, Arthur, tell me, what are you doing with your life?” the Father said. He had grown exquisitely aged, almost translucent, since Art had seen him last. In his dog collar and old-fashioned aviator’s shades, he looked like a waxworks figure.

Art had forgotten all about the Father’s visit until Gran stepped out of her superheated kitchen to remind him. He’d hastily showered and changed into fresh slacks and a mostly clean tee shirt, and had agreed to entertain the priest while his Gran finished cooking supper. Now, he wished he’d signed up to do the cooking.

“I’m working in London,” he said. “The same work as ever, but for an English firm.”

“That’s what your grandmother tells me. But is it making you happy? Is it what you plan to do with the rest of your life?”

“I guess so,” Art said. “Sure.”

“You don’t sound so sure,” Father Ferlenghetti said.

“Well, the work part’s excellent. The politics are pretty ugly, though, to tell the truth.”

“Ah. Well, we can’t avoid politics, can we?”

“No, I guess we can’t.”

“Art, I’ve always known that you were a very smart young man, but being smart isn’t the same as being happy. If you’re very lucky, you’ll get to be my age and you’ll look back on your life and be glad you lived it.”

Gran called him in for dinner before he could think of a reply. He settled down at the table and Gran handed him a pen.

“What’s this for?” he asked.

“Sign the tablecloth,” she said. “Write a little something and sign it and date it, nice and clear, please.”

“Sign the tablecloth?”

“Yes. I’ve just started a fresh one. I have everyone sign my tablecloth and then I embroider the signatures in, so I have a record of everyone who’s been here for supper. They’ll make a nice heirloom for your children—I’ll show you the old ones after we eat.”

“What should I write?”

“It’s up to you.”

While Gran and the Father looked on, Art uncapped the felt-tip pen and thought and thought, his mind blank. Finally, he wrote, “For my Gran. No matter where I am, I know you’re thinking of me.” He signed it with a flourish.

“Lovely. Let’s eat now.”

Art meant to log in and see if Colonelonic had dredged up any intel on Linda’s ex, but he found himself trapped on the sunporch with Gran and the Father and a small stack of linen tablecloths hairy with embroidered wishes. He traced their braille with his fingertips, recognizing the names of his childhood. Gran and the Father talked late into the night, and the next thing Art knew, Gran was shaking him awake. He was draped in a tablecloth that he’d pulled over himself like a blanket, and she folded it and put it away while he ungummed his eyes and staggered off to bed.

I almost said something about convicted felons working for government contractors, but I held onto my tongue. Consequently, an awkward silence blossomed.

“Well,” Audie said, at last. “Well! Let’s have a look at you, then.” She actually took a lap around me, looking me up and down, making little noises. “You look all right, Art. Maybe a little skinny, even. Alphie’s got a box of cookies for you.” Alphie stepped forward and produced the box, a family pack of President’s Choice Ridiculous Chocoholic Extra Chewies, a Canadian store brand I’d been raised on. Within seconds of seeing them, my mouth was sloshing with saliva.

“It’s good to see you, Audie, Alphie.” I managed to say it without spitting, an impressive feat, given the amount of saliva I was contending with. “Thanks for the care package.”

We stared at each other blankly.

“So, Art,” Alphie said, “So! How do you like it here?”

“Well, Alphie,” I said. “I can’t say as I do, really. As far as I can tell, I’m sane as I’ve ever been. It’s just a bunch of unfortunate coincidences and bad judgment that got me here.” I refrain from mentioning Alphie’s propensity for lapses in judgment.

“Wow,” Alphie said. “That’s a bummer. We should do something, you know, Audie?”

“Not really my area of expertise,” Audie said in clipped tones. “I would if I could, you know that, right Art? We’re family, after all.”

“Oh, sure,” I say magnanimously. But now that I’m looking at them, my cousins who got into a thousand times more trouble than I ever did, driving drunk, pirating software, growing naughty smokables in the backyard, and got away from it unscathed, I feel a stirring of desperate hope. “Only…”

“Only what?” Alphie said.

“Only, maybe, Audie, do you think you could, that is, if you’ve got the time, do you think you could have a little look around and see if any of your contacts could maybe set me up with a decent lawyer who might be able to get my case reheard? Or a shrink, for that matter? Something? ’Cause frankly it doesn’t really seem like they’re going to let me go, ever. Ever.”

Audie squirmed and glared at her brother. “I don’t really know anyone that fits the bill,” she said at last.

“Well, not firsthand, sure, why would you? You wouldn’t.” I thought that I was starting to babble, but I couldn’t help myself. “You wouldn’t. But maybe there’s someone that someone you know knows who can do something about it? I mean, it can’t hurt to ask around, can it?”

“I suppose it can’t,” she said.

“Wow,” I said, “that would just be fantastic, you know. Thanks in advance, Audie, really, I mean it, just for trying, I can’t thank you enough. This place, well, it really sucks.”

There it was, hanging out, my desperate and pathetic plea for help. Really, there was nowhere to go but down from there. Still, the silence stretched and snapped and I said, “Hey, speaking of, can I offer you guys a tour of the ward? I mean, it’s not much, but it’s home.”

So I showed them: the droolers and the fondlers and the pukers and my horrible little room and the scarred ping-pong table and the sticky decks of cards and the meshed-in TV. Alphie actually seemed to dig it, in a kind of horrified way. He started comparing it to the new Kingston Pen, where he’d done his six-month bit. After seeing the first puker, Audie went quiet and thin-lipped, leaving nothing but Alphie’s enthusiastic gurgling as counterpoint to my tour.

“Art,” Audie said finally, desperately, “do you think they’d let us take you out for a cup of coffee or a walk around the grounds?”

I asked. The nurse looked at a comm for a while, then shook her head.

“Nope,” I reported. “They need a day’s notice of off-ward supervised excursions.”

“Well, too bad,” Audie said. I understood her strategy immediately. “Too bad. Nothing for it, then. Guess we should get back to our hotel.” I planted a dry kiss on her cheek, shook Alphie’s sweaty hand, and they were gone. I skipped supper that night and ate cookies until I couldn’t eat another bite of rich chocolate.

#

“Got a comm?” I ask Doc Szandor, casually.

“What for?”

“Wanna get some of this down. The ideas for the hospital. Before I go back out on the ward.” And it is what I want to do, mostly. But the temptation to just log on and do my thing—oh!

“Sure,” he says, checking his watch. “I can probably stall them for a couple hours more. Feel free to make a call or whatever, too.”

Doc Szandor’s a good egg.