"Isn't there another way? Please? You have to help me -- I can't lose all this." I couldn't admit my real reasons for being so attached to this singularly miserable chapter in my life, not even to myself. The doctor rose to go. "Look, Julius, you haven't got the Whuffie to make it worth anyone's time to research a solution to this problem, other than the one that we all know about. I can give you mood- suppressants, but that's not a permanent solution." "Why not?" He boggled. "You _can't_ just take dope for the rest of your life, son. Eventually, something will happen to this body -- I see from your file that you're stroke-prone -- and you're going to get refreshed from your backup. The longer you wait, the more traumatic it'll be. You're robbing from your future self for your selfish present." It wasn't the first time the thought had crossed my mind. Every passing day made it harder to take the cure. To lie down and wake up friends with Dan, to wake up and be in love with Lil again. To wake up to a Mansion the way I remembered it, a Hall of Presidents where I could find Lil bent over with her head in a President's guts of an afternoon. To lie down and wake without disgrace, without knowing that my lover and my best friend would betray me, _had_ betrayed me. I just couldn't do it -- not yet, anyway. Dan -- Dan was going to kill himself soon, and if I restored myself from my old backup, I'd lose my last year with him. I'd lose _his_ last year. "Let's table that, doc. I hear what you're saying, but there're complications. I guess I'll take the mood-suppressants for now." He gave me a cold look. "I'll give you a scrip, then. I could've done that without coming out here. Please don't call me anymore." I was shocked by his obvious ire, but I didn't understand it until he was gone and I told Dan what had happened. "Us old-timers, we're used to thinking of doctors as highly trained professionals -- all that pre-Bitchun med-school stuff, long internships, anatomy drills... Truth is, the average doc today gets more training in bedside manner than bioscience. 'Doctor' Pete is a technician, not an MD, not the way you and I mean it. Anyone with the kind of knowledge you're looking for is working as a historical researcher, not a doctor. "But that's not the illusion. The doc is supposed to be the authority on medical matters, even though he's only got one trick: restore from backup. You're reminding Pete of that, and he's not happy to have it happen." # I waited a week before returning to the Magic Kingdom, sunning myself on the white sand beach at the Contemporary, jogging the Walk Around the World, taking a canoe out to the wild and overgrown Discovery Island, and generally cooling out. Dan came by in the evenings and it was like old times, running down the pros and cons of Whuffie and Bitchunry and life in general, sitting on my porch with a sweating pitcher of lemonade.