"Oh, Mrs. Harris...." Mary's chin trembled. "I hope it never happens again." "Now, child, we all have to go through these things when we're young. You're just a little slower than the others in acclimatizing to the drugs. You'll be fourteen soon and the medicop assures me you'll be over this sort of thing just as the others are." Mrs. Harris dismissed the class and when they had all filed from the room, she turned to Mary. "I think, dear, we should visit the clinic together, don't you?" "Yes, Mrs. Harris." Mary was not frightened now. She was just ashamed to be such a difficult child and so slow to acclimatize to the drugs. As she and the teacher walked down the long corridor to the clinic, Mary made up her mind to tell the medicop what she thought was wrong. It was not herself. It was her hypoalter, that nasty little Susan Shorrs. Sometimes, when Susan had the body, the things Susan was doing and thinking came to Mary like what the ancients had called _dreams_, and Mary had never liked this secondary ego whom she could never really know. Whatever was wrong, it was Susan's doing. The filthy creature never took care of her hair, it was always so messy when Susan shifted the body to her. Mrs. Harris waited while Mary went into the clinic. Mary was glad to find Captain Thiel, the nice medicop, on duty. But she was silent while the X-rays were being taken, and, of course, while he got the blood samples, she concentrated on being brave. Later, while Captain Thiel looked in her eyes with the bright little light, Mary said calmly, "Do you know my hypoalter, Susan Shorrs?" The medicop drew back and made some notes on a pad before answering. "Why, yes. She's in here quite often too." "Does she look like me?" "Not much. She's a very nice little girl...." He hesitated, visibly fumbling. Mary blurted, "Tell me truly, what's she like?" Captain Thiel gave her his nice smile. "Well, I'll tell you a secret if you keep it to yourself." "Oh, I promise." He leaned over and whispered in her ear and she liked the clean odor of him. "She's not nearly as pretty as you are." Mary wanted very badly to put her arms around him and hug him. Instead, wondering if Mrs. Harris, waiting outside, had heard, she drew back self-consciously and said, "Susan is the cause of all this trouble, the nasty little thing." "Oh now!" the medicop exclaimed. "I don't think so, Mary. She's in trouble, too, you know." "She still eats sauerkraut." Mary was defiant. "But what's wrong with that?" "You told her not to last year because it makes me sick on my shift. But it agrees in buckets with a little pig like her." The medicop took this seriously. He made a note on the pad. "Mary, you should have complained sooner." "Do you think my father might not like me because Susan Shorrs is my hypoalter?" she asked abruptly. "I hardly think so, Mary. After all, he doesn't even know her. He's never on her Ego shift." "A little bit," Mary said, and was immediately frightened.