I came out of a comforting darkness to the bright warm light. I was not alone; nurse Gracie was there, under me; a comforting warm presence making strange sounds. They sounded almost like growling, but she was still in the darkness herself, so it couldn't be that.

However, she was still in the darkness, so I resolved to stay there, so she would not be alone in it. I remembered to be gentle, even when she moved a little. I did want to explore, to find Doctor Reg... but this was more important.

I didn't have to wait too long... at least I don't think I did.

“Gurgle... snerk....”

Nurse Gracie's eyes opened directly into mine, our noses touching. I smiled, happy now that she was finally out of the darkness, so I could explore. This did not seem to be the right reaction.

“Gahhh!”

She bounced her head off the top of the bed, shoving at me at the same time. While I was gentle, I wasn't about to move. Something in the darkness had scared her!

“The darkness?”

The books nurse Gracie had read before we succumbed last night had proven useful. From the cat in the hat to the sidewalk ending, they all used words like 'the' and 'and'. I knew I wasn't saying things right yet, but I was getting better. I would try harder today.

Nurse Gracie sat up, moving me.

“You can let go now Mary. We need to get up and face the day.”

Now that she was safe, I let go. How did someone face a day? Wasn't it all around?

“First thing is first Mary; we need to shower and get clean clothes. I used to give you baths before, but I think now we can let you do that on your own.”

She looked at me and I smiled.

“Well, mostly on your own. You stay here for now, OK? I need to get some of my clothes. I won't be gone long at all, then I'll teach you how to shower.”

I wasn't happy, but I waited. It was bright, there were things everywhere, and we were safe. To pass the time I explored more. The shelf full of dolls had soft things too, that I was sure I could hug without breaking them. So I picked one, a long eared creature, and tried.

It shrank under my hands, but grew again when I let it go. It did not break. It also had lines like the ones on my arms across it's face, arms, and legs. And it had a nice smile. It wore clothes like mine. I checked... I didn't have the long ears or the short tail either, so it was different after all.

“Found Stitch the rabbit, have you?”

Stitch the rabbit? What was that?

“Stitch the rabbit?”

“Yep, Stitch is her name, and a rabbit is what type of animal she is. Like we are humans, she is a rabbit. That's why she's different. Rabbits have long ears, large teeth, fur, and they hop around to move. The doc picked her up because she looked a bit like you, I guess. You can ask him when he gets up.”

Gets up? What was getting up?

“Now don't you worry about the doc, Mary. He'll be just fine. But we have to get clean before he gets up, otherwise he will try something nasty. And that won't be any fun for anyone.”

I remembered fun. That word evoked all kinds of fleeting sensations, or water, and sunshine, and laughter. It was an action which provided mirth. I couldn't really remember what the activities that led to the fun were, but I knew it was out there in many forms, and I'd discovered one last night.

Listening to nurse Gracie read had been fun.

“Come on Mary, you can take Stitch if you like. She's never had a bath either, and she's waterproof.”

Nurse Gracie took my hand and led me out of my room, and down the hall past the room designated as mine. Two doors over, she opened one. It led to a room smaller than mine, with a cold floor made of some form of white brick.

One section of the floor had a small wall with cloth in front of it. The other side had a table running the length of the room with indentations in it, two of them. There were... protrusions in front of those. Pipes? Something...

Nurse Gracie saw my look and turned something attached to the depression. Water came out of the pipe. At least I think it was water... it was clear like it. She turned the thing again and it stopped.

“Alright, now how we take a shower is first we undress.”

I dutifully took off my clothes as nurse Gracie did the same. She had more clothes than I, so it took her longer. Once done, she once again took my hand.

“Now we get into the bathtub.”

She took my hand again, and led me past the small wall. The floor and wall here were all the same thing. She then pulled the clothes for the 'bathtub' across so we couldn't see the room anymore. I watched as she did something to another thing like the first, and a pipe over our head start dripping water on us.

“Brr, too cold!”

Nurse Gracie kept playing with the... gear? And the water got warm. Then more than warm. Nurse Gracie turned to me with a smile.

“Much better. It's not too hot or anything is it? I like hot showers.”

It wasn't. I shook my head. I hadn't known water could be a source of warmth! Or had I? Was it another thing I had lost? It seemed to me that maybe I had... it seemed a simple thing to know. Those pipes couldn't be magic, could they?

The water felt so good across my body. Such a simple thing, but so wonderful. Though it seemed to do weird things too; I felt less... tense. I think that was right.

“Alright, now that the water is adjusted properly, we take our washcloth' she handed me a grey strip of clothes 'and wet it down with water, then take our soap here.”

She handed me a small brick of something that smelled very nice. The she took her small clothes and wrapped the brick in it, and moved it around. I did the same, and was rewarded with some sort of froth on my clothes. I looked, and it matched hers.

“Then we rub our bodies down with the washcloth, very gently, so the soap gets on us, and wipes all the dirt away.”

She started rubbing, watching me. So I started rubbing. It felt rather nice.

“That's right, just as gently as you held me last night. Almost no pressure at all.”

I started over, even more slow and gentle. I had to ask though.

“Not pain?”

“No Mary, you aren't supposed to feel pain doing this. Not even a little.”

I nodded, more to myself than to nurse Gracie. I had been right in my idea. Nurse Gracie did not like pain, so of course if she did something it wouldn't be to feel it. Feel is a good word to remember, I think. Nurse Gracie stopped me from rubbing my head though.

“Only your face for now... the front part. The top and back of your head are a different step. Well and your ears, but I think I need to show you where those are.”

She was right, I didn't know where ears were. Or even what they were. After I finished, I removed the clothes of, and rubbed down Stitch the rabbit too.

“Next step is hair. We take the shampoo here.' she held up a bottle of blue liquid. 'we put enough into our hand to coat our palm, like this, then we rub it into our hair, like so.”

I watched her as she rubbed the liquid into her head and the strings she called hair. So that was what it was. I wondered briefly why it was there. No doubt it served some purpose. I pondered as the expected froth appeared in her hair.

Nurse Gracie and I were the same in many general ways. We both had two arms, two legs, and a head. She had a protrusion on her face: I checked, I had one too. She was taller than I was, with lighter hair. She was bigger than I was in every way, but somehow I knew she wasn't fat. She had curious lighter patches on her, places where her skin was brighter than seemed normal for her. She also did not have strings in her limbs, like I did.

I had strings in my arms and legs, and in my um, main part. I even had them in my hands. They seemed to close up borders of me that were lined with black. I had lighter skin than nurse Gracie, but no patches. What I did have was faint lines of black visible, winding their way through me. Perhaps the same black that seemed to be holding parts of me together?

“Noticed, huh Mary? Yeah we both look different. I'll show you once we get done here if you want.”

Why did she seem sad? I nodded, I was curious. I found out all about curiosity last night; it was emotion, and I felt it about everything around me. That and it killed cats. I wanted to stop it from killing cats, that didn't seem nice at all. But in order to do that, I had to know my enemy.

She finished washing her head and rinsed the froth out of her hair, and I started my own. Nurse Gracie ended up helping me, and showing me where my ears were. Then I did Stitch the rabbit's head. With our first shower (named after a rain shower maybe?) done, nurse Gracie pulled out a bigger clothes/washcloth and patted herself dry.

While I did that for myself and Stitch, she sat on a weird chair; I heard liquid dripping. It was coming from her! Had she taken too much water from the shower? It came from a small hole between her legs. I had the same kind of hole, was I supposed to leak like that too? If so, why wasn't I? She saw my look.

“Perfectly normal thing Mary. And no, you probably won't need to. You're a little different.”

She dried that area off again with an even smaller clothes she ripped from some sort of bin to the side of the chair, and then clicked another gear thing, that caused all the liquid in the chair to vanish. I was entranced again. Where had it gone? Then it filled up again!

“No, you shouldn't stick your hand in the toilet Mary.”

“But....”

“The water went down the hole, yes. It's supposed to, and ends up in a big river underground. But hands and arms can't go down the hole Mary, and you just cleaned yourself. It wouldn't do to get dirty again, and the toilet is filthy.”

The chair (toilet?) looked clean to me, but nurse Gracie knew more, so I deferred to her wisdom. Stitches the rabbit did not seem to need to make water either, as she had no hole for it. For that matter, if my hole wasn't used for that, what was it used for?

“That's not a very nice or polite thing to do Mary. When you're around other people, even just me, you're in public, and it's not a good thing to touch yourself that way in public. Now watch, we need to put on our clothes.”

I stopped, and watched. This interacting with other selfs was hard. They had so many rules!

Clothes called panties went on first, right over the area with the hole. Then a piece called a bra went on next; hooked around my 'waist' then pulled up. Then there was another dress. Nurse Gracie called it a 'sundress', but I saw no sun in it. Then came foot coverings called 'socks' and 'shoes'. Apparently these clothes protected feet from damage. Nurse Gracie said so, and I had no reason to doubt her so far.

The clothes nurse Gracie wore were different; where my dress was white, hers was black with a white piece in front. She wore larger socks that covered her legs, and a hat. I knew all about hats from the cat last night, and she was definitely in a hat. Her shoes were bigger, black, and hard, where mine were gray and soft.

“Alright Mary, I'm going to show you yourself, as I promised.”

She pulled me in front of a wall, then moved a panel and there we were. Rather, Nurse Gracie was there in both places, and someone who had to be me was there with her.

The person had hair so black it was blue, or so blue it was black, with some white on either side of her face. Like the rest of her, her face was smaller than Gracie; I pointed to my face protrusion, and the person did the same. It WAS me! There were two of me somehow!

“That's your nose.”

I pointed lower.

“That's your mouth.”

I moved my hair a bit, and there were my ears; looking just as weird as they felt. I knew what eyes were, and while nurse Gracie's eye was blue, mine were a dark yellow, and had more of those lines in them. I didn't have clothes for one of my eyes like she did.

In fact, my face continued the line trend, showing it's own share of the same dark lines. It also had more of those lines of string; one line per side, and they weren't in the exact same place; I don't know why, but that bothered me a little. I touched one.

“Those are stitches. Like what your Stitches the rabbit is named after.”

The other I's eyes widened. They were stitches! Like Stitches the rabbit had! And like Stitches the rabbit, they had the same function... they were to keep me together! I had been right!

“Stitches!”

When I spoke, my mouth moved. I could see things within.

“Those are teeth.”

I grabbed something in there.

“That's your tongue, you use it to talk.”

I let it go.

“Teeth for...?”

“Eating. Most people need to eat to survive. We aren't sure if you do yet.”

Why did she look so... uneasy?

I didn't want to eat anything. After all, eating was like fire... if I eat a thing, it'll be gone, won't it? If it's gone, it will never exist again, right? Causing anything to simply not be anymore was an idea so abhorrent to me I couldn't express it.

Nurse Gracie had to grab my hand to snap me out of it. She had a weird look, and started to lead me down the hall. I had to try.

“Won't.”

“You won't what Mary?”

“Mary won't eat.”

“The correct term when referring to yourself is 'I'. And why won't you eat?”

“Eating is bad.”

“....what? Mary, what do you....”

A new voice interrupted nurse Gracie.

“If she won't eat, does that mean I can eat her? She smells really tasty.”

Nurse Gracie put her face in her hands while I looked around for the source.

“Just perfect, all I need right now. Go away, Fido.”

The aforementioned Fido dropped... from the ceiling. He was on four legs, all patches of scabrous fur and diseased looking skin. He had a long face, mostly mouth filled with long sharp teeth that seemed too big for him. His eyes, dark and shot through with red lines, did not seem to look the same direction. Fido was a... dog?

“You know you can't eat her Fido, she's off limits. Expressly forbidden by the doc himself.”

“But I get to eat all the doc's experiments eventually.”

“Not this one, and you know it.”

“Sigh. She smells so wonderful too. Barely even dead at all!”

I wasn't sure I followed this discussion, but he wanted to eat me. So he must be a bad dog. I resolved to stay away from him, which of course meant I had to keep nurse Gracie away from him too, since she was holding on to me.

“Come on Mary, we have to get to the kitchen and start breakfast; don't worry about Fido, he won't eat you.”

Fido gave a rather strange grin.

“Come on Mary, he won't hurt us.”

Nurse Gracie pulled me past Fido, who stepped aside to let us pass. Then he started following.

“Alright, so tell me Mary, why is eating bad? Almost everyone has to eat something to live.”

How to explain this?

“If you eat, it's gone. Fire eats, and Mary is gone. So eating is bad.”

Nurse Gracie nodded slowly.

“That does make a certain amount of sense, given what you know.”

Fido, that jerk, just laughed.

“Oh, kiddo, you are precious.”

“Alright, to start with, fire is indiscriminate; it eats anything it can. Living creatures can be more choosy. For example, we are going to the kitchen to cook breakfast for myself and doctor Reginald. We won't be eating anything alive.”

“Just a few things that used to be alive.”

“Shut up Fido, you aren't helping. Yes Mary, some of the things we eat were alive. But they aren't anymore when we eat them... hmm, how to put this. I know! The things we eat have no self in them. They are things that are not people in any way.”

Well that was something, but I still wasn't sure I approved. Nurse Gracie swept open a door then let my hand go.

“Anyway this is the kitchen. Shut the door please, while I get started.”

Fido walked in faster than I could shut the door, so I settled for watching him. And of course, inching away slowly. Then I noticed. He had stitches too! I still had Stitches the rabbit. We were all similar!

“Fido has stitches.”

Nurse Gracie was in buried in another door; some sort of cabinet. She began taking things out of it.

“Yes he does. He is like you that way. For that matter, many things around here are like you in that way.”

“Nurse Gracie doesn't.”

Fido spoke up again.

“Ha. Nurse Gracie, is it?”

“Sure... I am trained as a nurse, and I am her nurse after all.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, Gracie.”

How would being a nurse help nurse Gracie sleep at night? What was sleeping at night? I wasn't sure what was going on! Fido had a smile, but it didn't seem like a nice smile, and nurse Gracie's own smile seemed less happy somehow than earlier.

“Good morning.”

Doctor Reg!

“Doctor Reg!”

“Mary! Ouch! Not so hard please. Good morning, did you sleep well?”

He turned to nurse Gracie.

“Did she sleep well?”

There it was again, this sleep thing. Nurse Gracie nodded.

“We both did actually, though it took her a while to go under; she resisted it for a good hour. Once she understood the rules she was very careful about following them.”

Fido chimed in again.

“What's this, the princess has been awake since yesterday and no one bothered to inform me? The princess was sleeping? With Gracie? How does that even work? What gives, doc?”

Doctor Reg sat down at the table as nurse Gracie got out some metal containers and put them on a cabinet with fire in it. She then put the things she got our of the first cabinet in the containers on the second. She was very close to the fire.

“Doctor Reg, fire.”

“It's alright Mary, nurse Gracie knows what she is doing.”

I turned to Fido, still with his grin. I hadn't forgotten what he said!

“Who is princess?”

“Why you are, princess.”

I shook my head. That wasn't my name! I pointed to self.

“Mary.”

Doctor Reg gave Fido a look. I don't think it was a nice look, but I can't be sure.

“Yes Fido, her name is Mary. Calling her anything other than her name may confuse her, at least for now. Antagonizing her may earn you a spot in the Kennel. I expect you and Mary to be good friends, with all the things that implies. And no eating her, any part, for any reason.”

I smiled. Doctor Reg was on my side!

“Gotcha doc, I'll play nice. But you've got to help me out here, her smell alone is killing me! Again....”

“I'll see what I can do.”

I had another question, now that the important eating one was resolved.

“What sleep?”

Nurse Gracie corrected me, while still doing weird things.

“What is sleep, Mary. That's what you mean to say.”

I beamed at her. I'd forgotten that word.

“Sleep is that activity that is a lack of activity.”

Nurse Gracie turned to doctor Reg and gave him another look I couldn't read.

“That explanation was clear as mud, doctor. What doctor Reg means to say, is sleep is a word for the darkness we both were in last night, after we closed our eyes.”

Sleep was another enemy then, and far more dangerous than curiosity.

“how was she last night? She didn't... do anything?”

“No, she was very well behaved. She was just distraught. With me there, she settled right off. How did you sleep Mary? You didn't seem afraid.”

I wasn't.

“Nurse Gracie was with Mary. So Mary was happy.”

Fido muttered something about sugar I did not quite hear. Which made me wonder what sugar was.

“As for why Mary needed sleep, I'm not sure. It indicates she does at least have some biological processes, which validates my work thus far.”

Fido looked intent.

“So, she's a success?”

Doctor Reg answered, equally intent.

“Absolutely. Mary is unequivocally a success.”

What was unequiv – that word?

“Darn. OK doc, you made your point. So what can a growing puppy get to eat around here?”

“It's almost done, just relax.”

“Smells wonderful as usual, Gracie.”

“Thank you doctor.”

I had to tell doctor Reg about my earlier conclusion.

“Eating is bad.”

I smiled; this time I hadn't forgotten a word! I was pretty sure I'd used it correctly. Fido was not impressed.

“You still on about that?”

Doctor Reg spoke before I could ask what 'on about' meant.

“What do you mean, Mary?”

Nurse Gracie put a plate down in front of doctor Reg; it was filled with nice smelling things.

“Fire eats, remember doctor? Eats and then those things are gone? Well Mary remembers.”

Doctor Reg made a face.

“Alright, alright, I'll handle it. Come here Mary.”

He got up, so I followed. He opened the cabinet nurse Gracie had been in earlier, and removed a small box.

“These are eggs. They are cooked, like the ones on my plate.”

He opened the box, and some small things that weren't quite round greeted my vision.

“Can you tell me how many there are?”

I thought. There were more than one, but the box wasn't full. Counting was something dimly remembered, but how to count wasn't entirely clear anymore. So I took a guess.

“Eight?”

“Close Mary, there are six left. And when we are done eating those, there will be another box. See the other box?”

He pointed, and I nodded.

“We will never run out of eggs in the world Mary, there are always more. When we run out here, we can always go to a store for new ones. The same is true for everything in here. The eggs, the milk, the bacon, the beef...”

“Meats might be considered a slightly different case, doctor.”

“Shh, Gracie, I'm handling it. The point it, Mary, that we never eat anything that there isn't more of. There is only one you in the entire world, and only one me or Gracie. Which would be why eating us is bad; we could never be replaced. Do you understand?”

I nodded, solemn. It made a lot of sense. But it also raised another question. I pointed to Fido.

“Fido?”

The doctor grinned like Fido did.

“Oh he's replaceable, I think I could make another one, but the problem is he'd taste bad so no one would want to.”

“Har de har har, doc.”

Wait, what was that word? Taste? What was that?

“What is taste?”

Doctor Reg looked odd for a second.

“Taste is another sense. It's kind of like touch. It's the fifth. You do it with your mouth and tongue.”

I tasted nurse Gracie. She tasted good. Very good. She backed away, making it hard. So I followed.

“Doctor....”

“Relax Gracie, she's only licking you. She's anti eating, remember?”

“Right, right sorry. It's just that after last time, I'm kind of leery of another Romero incident.”

“You taste good. Tasting is nice.”

“Um, thanks, I think.”

I went to taste doctor Reg. He didn't move, and let me. He tasted stale somehow, dirty.

“You taste bad, doctor Reg.”

I went to taste Fido. But his words stopped me.

“Sorry kiddo, you really shouldn't taste me, I'll taste worse than the doc, easily.”

“Ick.”

“Yeah right, Mary. Ick indeed.”

Doctor Reg got something out of the fridge; it was a small thin glass filled with something dark.

“Here Mary, taste this.”

“Doctor....”

“Relax Gracie, she had some before, remember? There should be no difference between injection and ingestion.”

“But we're heading into the Romero zone here....”

What was Romero, and what was a zone?

“Here Mary, drink this.”

Doctor Reg popped the top out of the tiny glass and handed it to me. I put it in my mouth.

“No, don't chew it! Just tilt your head back, that's it. Now let me have the test tube back, that's right.”

I let him take the small glass back. Apparently I wasn't supposed to taste it all, just the liquid inside.

“Did she...?”

“No, she didn't break it. Her mouth shouldn't be damaged.”

The liquid was salty, heavy tasting, and had a faint tang of metal. It was glorious. It tasted way better than even nurse Gracie! Food was amazing! There was only one word for such a treat!

“Good!”

I grinned. Doctor Reg looked happy, but for some reason nurse Gracie did not. She turned to her own plate.

“More?”

“Sure, that can be arranged.”

“Doctor, are you sure that's a good idea?”

It worked in conjunction with the electricity last time, and she's had to have run out by now. After all we only injected a pint.”

My lower body made a growling noise. It was loud and sounded angry. Nurse Gracie jumped, looking very uneasy.

“See? She's just hungry.”

Nurse Gracie started picking at the things on her plate. She looked sad. Why was she sad? I decided to take a guess. After all, it had been so good.

“Mary will share.”

She looked even worse, if anything.

“Oh Mary, I can't eat what you do. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so startled. Let me finish mine, and we'll get you all fixed up, alright?”

I nodded and sat down to wait as nurse Gracie and doctor Reg ate. Doctor Reg tried to get me to eat some of his, but it didn't smell as good as what he gave me from the cold cabinet, so I decided to wait. Nurse Gracie finished, then doctor Reg did, and he drank some brown liquid while nurse Gracie took the dishes and put them into a depression like the ones in the bathroom. What was she doing?

“What?”

“Oh, Mary, I'm doing the dishes. I clean them with soap too, just like cleaning us. That way they are clean for the next time.”

She even washed my small glass, after everything else. Fido did not eat anything, he just watched us with his grin.

“Alright, so let's get Mary's stomach taken care of, and then we can see about doing interesting things all day.”

I cheered. Fido woofed. Nurse Gracie gave a smile.

“OK so Mary, in order to get your food I need to go to the cellar lab. You can come with me, or you can help nurse Gracie clean the house. Which do you want to do?”

Food or helping nurse Gracie? Wait, if I went with nurse Gracie I'd get both, right? I ran over to her, only stumbling once.

“Nurse Gracie!”

“Alright kiddo, let's start right away then. This drafty old castle is a big place.”

“Alright, you made a good choice Mary, I'll see you soon.”

When doctor Reg got up to leave, Fido followed him.

“Alright Mary, now let's get started. This' she pulled out some sort of weird puffy stick ' is a feather duster. This one is clean, and what you do with it is, you gently rub it over all the exposed surfaces in a room to remove all the dust build up. We will start in your room to give you an idea of what cleaning entails.”

Cleaning has tails? And when did we use soap on the rooms?

Cleaning my room seemed to be simple. I would dust, and nurse Gracie would sweep with a long puffy stick (longer than mine) called a broom. I guessed to get the dust on the floor. Then she would plug in a machine called a 'vacuum' to remove the dust from the slightly warmer clothes the floor wore called a 'rug'. I briefly wondered why clothes worked for the floor, but not me.

I only had a few accidents with the duster; nurse Gracie was kind enough to show me how to use the feather duster, lightly holding my hand and running me through the motions, and the strength involved. Luckily I did not break anything; I'd have felt bad if I had. Putting a line in miss Callie's face (a 'doll', not a 'plushie', I was told) was bad enough!

So my accidents were more knocking things around after that, and by the time we got out of my room I resolved to be even more gentle!

The next room we went to was the library; it was a home for books, and there were so many! I couldn't wait till I could read them all! We were cleaning up there, nurse Gracie with her 'broom' and me with my feather duster, when doctor Reg found us again.

He had brought an entire bag of the red stuff with him, with something sticking out of it.

“Here you go Mary, be careful, OK?”

I took the bag, it was warm. I knew somehow if I squeezed to hard it would throw the stuff everywhere and make a mess, so I held it from the bottom. It was warm.

“Alright, this' he pointed to the thing sticking out of the bag 'is a straw. To you close your mouth around it, and act like you're going to talk to get it to work. You don't actually talk though, you just keep acting like it. An if you need to you stop and take a break. Watch me, OK?”

I nodded, and he took a small bag of his own with bright colors on it and put a 'straw' into it. Then he put his mouth to it and his chest and face expanded. He stopped, and then spoke again.

“Now you try.”

Nurse Gracie made a noise as I put the straw to my mouth. I managed to do it, but then I felt full and couldn't do it anymore. It felt almost like it wanted to come back up, but I wouldn't let it, it was too good for that! Even better warm than cold!

I couldn't stop a little bit of it coming out though; the stuff that was in my mouth at the time.

“Just great, I knew it. Drinking it would be much less messy.”

Now Nurse Gracie was mad.

“Only until she gets used to the straw. This way will be much easier in the long run.”

How could I make it up to her?

“Try again Mary. Take in less this time, then stop.”

I did so while nurse Gracie walked out. I couldn't talk, so I pointed at her.

“Oh she's just getting something to clean up the new mess. Don't worry she will be back.”

When I could talk again I had a question.

“Was Mary bad?”

I knew from the books last night that bad people did bad things, and made other people angry. I didn't want to do that.

“No Mary, you were not bad. You didn't do anything wrong; it was probably my fault in fact, for not having you try this in the kitchen or over a sink. I think if we both apologize, we will avoid the wrath of mount st Gracie with ease.”

Fido snorted.

“Yeah good luck with that, she still hasn't forgiven me for the pumpkins.”

Pumpkins?

“What is apologize? What is pumpkins?”

Doctor Reg got down so we were looking into each other.

“Apologizing is what you do to someone you feel you have wronged. Like now, you feel that you made nurse Gracie angry, even if you're not sure why?”

I nodded.

“Well when you feel like that, just like you do now, you say 'I'm sorry' to the other person. If they are a nice person, they will accept your words and not be angry anymore. Or at least as angry. Do you understand?”

I nodded again.

“Pumpkins?”

Doctor Reg looked uneasy now.

“A type of food, and also used for other things. I'll let nurse Gracie explain that one, alright?”

I nodded. Then looked at the floor, spattered with the red stuff. I wanted it. I was full, I think, at least the lower part of me wasn't making noises, but I still wanted it. Doctor Reg stopped me though.

“No, Mary. We don't eat things on the floor. If we did that, nurse Gracie would become much more angry at us than she is now. Only Fido is allowed.”

I looked at Fido.

“Sorry Mary, not my type of food. I appreciate the offer though – it warms the cockles of my cold dead heart.”

Cockle?

Just then nurse Gracie came back with a bucket filled with weird smelling water and soap. She had clothing for her hands, and was muttering things. I wanted to hug her, but I didn't want to cause her to drop her new supplies.

“Nurse Gracie! I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry....”

“Hey relax Mary, take a breath! I forgive you, OK? Besides it wasn't your fault.”

As soon as she set her things down I took the chance, hugging her.

“Sheesh, lighten up a little, I can't breathe here. Besides, like I said, it's not your fault. I'm not mad at you.”

“Yes, I know, we should have done this in the kitchen, I'm sorry too.”

“Help?”

No Mary, you can't help me. You need gloves' she pointed at her hand clothes 'for this and I don't have any your size. This water can hurt you if you aren't careful, even with gloves. If you want to help, go back to dusting, please.”

I went back to dusting. After some time doctor Reg spoke to nurse Gracie, who was still cleaning the floor.

“So M is interesting.”

“Oh? The sensors are actually working?”

“Of course, and we have full data feeds recorded starting from the event onward. Full scans too, with environmental variance within acceptable levels. The chip is working too. Seems there was a doubling of M's mass from the first jolt to last night. It seems electricity was the key after all.”

“But why? That doesn't make any sense.”

Who was 'M'? Well it wasn't me, I was Mary. So they must be talking about another self that I didn't know of yet.

“It makes perfect sense. With M being dead, there were no mitochondria. No cells producing power. Some power was coming from the fresh plasma, and no doubt continues too, but that doesn't last. The real power came from, well, power. While the mass growth came from the conversion of plasma to active cells.”

“So it really was just as you theorized.”

“You don't have to make that sound so unusual you know, I'm right very often!”

I could see nurse Gracie roll her eye clearly from where I was standing. That looked kind of fun, but I would try later. I was helping now.

“Suuuure you are. So how long do you think M will be fooled by this ruse?”

“Couldn't say, it could be some time, or tomorrow. That M is a sharp one.”

“Well, I need to go into town after we finish up here. The day is marching on, and I'd like to be back before dark, so the usual routine will have to suffer an interruption or two.”

“I don't mind. Clothes and what else?”

“Think we should stock up on food too, We can't keep Mary indoors forever, and once we let her out everything’s going to start. I also think we should call the geezers. Not only do we owe them a call, it might be good cover later.”

“I agree with all that, it's just annoying dealing with their interference. You sure you won't take protection?”

“I'll be seen as a threat if I do. I'm just barely tolerated in town now, showing up with protection will make me a threat.”

“Alright, well be careful. I'm off to the lab again. Be good Mary, I'll be back later, alright?”

That last bit was directed at me. I didn't want doctor Reg to leave again, but he seemed to leave a lot, and he always came back. He gestured with his hand at me, and I caught on and mimicked it. He smiled and left.

“Dust Mary, we have to finish all these shelves soon! Remember to be careful!”

I dusted.