My Sister's Keeper

There's an indigenous tribe in Africa that tells of life coming from the second star in Alpha Centauri, the one no one can see without a high-powered observatory telescope. Come to think of it, the Greeks, the Aboriginals, and the Plains Indians all lived continents apart and all, independently, looked at the same septuplet knot of the Pleiades and believed them to be seven young girls ru

Make of it what you will.

CAMPBELL

THE ONLY THING COMPARABLE to the aftermath of a grand mal seizure is waking up on the pavement with a hangover from the mother of all frat parties and immediately being run over by a truck. On second thought, maybe a grand mal is worse. I am covered in my own filth, hooked up to medicine and falling apart at the seams, when Julia walks toward me. "It's a seizure dog," I say.

"No kidding." Julia holds out her hand for Judge to sniff. She points to the couch beside me. "Can I sit down?"

"It's not catching, if that's what you mean."

"It wasn't." Julia comes close enough that I can feel the heat from her shoulder, inches away from mine. "Why didn't you tell me, Campbell?"

"Christ, Julia, I didn't even tell my parents." I try to look over her shoulder into the hallway. "Where's A

"How long has this been going on?"

I try to get up, and manage to lift myself a half inch before my strength gives out. " I have to get back in there."

"Campbell."

I sigh. "A while."

"A while, as in a week?"

Shaking my head, I say, "A while, as in two days before we graduated from Wheeler." I look up at her. "The day I took you home, all I wanted was to be with you. When my parents told me I had to got o that stupid di

"What?"

"What do you want me to say, Julia? I wasn't good enough for you. You deserved better than some freak who might fall down frothing at the mouth any old minute."

Julia goes perfectly still. "You might have let me make up my own mind."

"What difference would it have made? Like you really would have gotten great satisfaction guarding me like Judge does when it happens; wiping up after me, living at the end of my life." I shake my head. "You were so incredibly independent. A free spirit. I didn't want to be the one who took that away from you."

"Well, if I'd had the choice, maybe I wouldn't have spent the past fifteen years thinking there was something the matter with me."

"You?" I start to laugh. "Look at you. You're a knockout. You're smarter than I am. You're on a career track and you're family-centered and you probably even can balance your checkbook."

"And I'm lonely, Campbell," Julia adds. "Why do you think I had to learn to act so independent? I also get mad too quickly, and I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one. My hair has its own zip code. Plus, I get certifiably crazy when I've got PMS. You don't love someone because they're perfect," she says. "You love them in spite of the fact that they're not."

I don't know how to respond to that; it's like being told after thirty-five years that the sky, which I've seen as a brilliant blue, is in fact rather green.

"And another thing—this time, you don't get to leave me. I'm going to leave you."

If possible, that only makes me feel worse. I try to pretend it doesn't hurt, but I don't have the energy. "So go."

Julia settles next to me. "I will," she says. "In another fifty or sixty years."

ANNA

I KNOCK ON THE DOOR of the men's room, and then walk inside. On one wall is a really long, gross urinal. On the other, washing his hands in a sink, is Campbell. He's wearing a pair of my dad's uniform pants. He looks different now, as if all the straight lines that had been used to draw his face have been smudged. "Julia said you wanted me to come in here," I say.

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you alone, and all the conference rooms are upstairs. Your dad doesn't think I ought to tackle that just yet." He wipes his hands on a towel. "I'm sorry about what happened."

Well, I don't even know if there's a decent answer to that. I chew on my lower lip. "Is that why I couldn't pat the dog?"

"Yeah."

"How does Judge know what to do?"

Campbell shrugs. "It's supposed to have something to do with scent or electrical impulses that an animal can sense before a human can. But I think it's because we know each other so well." He pats Judge on the neck. "He gets me somewhere safe before it happens. I usually have about twenty minutes' lead time."

"Huh." I am suddenly shy. I've been with Kate when she's really, really sick, but this is different. I hadn't been expecting this from Campbell. "Is this why you took my case?"

"So that I could have a seizure in public? Believe me, no."

"Not that." I look away from him. "Because you know what it's like to not have any control over your body."

"Maybe," Campbell says thoughtfully. "But my doorknobs did sorely need polishing."

If he's trying to make me feel better, he's failing miserably. "I told you having me testify wasn't the greatest idea."

He puts his hands on my shoulders. "A

How am I supposed to fight that logic? So I follow Campbell back into the courtroom, where nothing is the way it was just an hour ago. With everyone watching him like he's a ticking bomb, Campbell walks up to the bench and turns to the court in general. "I'm very sorry about that, Judge," he says. "Anything for a ten-minute break, right?"

How can he make jokes about something like this? And then I realize: it's what Kate does, too. Maybe if God gives you a handicap, he makes sure you've got a few extra doses of humor to take the edge off.

"Why don't you take the rest of the day, Counselor," Judge DeSalvo offers.

"No, I'm all right now. And I think it's important that we get to the bottom of this." He turns to the court reporter. "Could you, uh, refresh my memory?"

She reads back the transcript, and Campbell nods, but he acts like he's hearing my words, regurgitated, for the very first time. "All right, A

Again, I squirm. "Not quite."

"Can you explain?"

"She didn't ask me to file the lawsuit."

"Then what did she ask you?"

I steal a glance at my mother. She knows; she has to know. Don't make me say it out loud.

"A

I shake my head, tight-lipped, and Judge DeSalvo leans over. "A

"Fine." The truth bursts out of me; a raging river, now that the dam's washed away. "She asked me to kill her."

The first thing that was wrong was that Kate had locked the door to our bedroom, when there wasn't really a lock, which meant she'd either pushed up furniture or pe

I guess I made enough noise, because she opened up. And that was the second thing: there was something just wrong about the room. I glanced around, but everything seemed to be in place—most importantly, none of my stuff had been messed with—and yet Kate still looked like she'd swilled a mystery.