ile evaporated from his suddenly stern face. "Perhaps
it's because this is not your picture and this is not your card."

Her face went white.

"What is your name?"

"Robina Rowe." Her downcast eyes were locked on her fingers squirming in
her lap.

"Who's Loretta Meenan?"

"Mah girlfriend."

"Why did you borrow her card?"

She was close to tears. "Ah jus' had to go to this feelie. It's got mah
very favorite actor in it."

"Evidently your card doesn't permit you to attend horror feelies."

She nodded.

"Why not? Nightmares?"

She shook her head.

"Don't tell me you have a bad heart!"

She shook her head again. "Ah'm a Sensitive," she said bleakly.

* * * * *

In a sudden surge of anger the doctor half rose out of his chair and
leaned across the desk. "Why you little fool!" he roared. "You little
damn fool!"

From the open doorway a shape hurtled across the desk at the doctor and
crashed with him to the floor.

"Jason!" Robina shrieked.

"Don't you talk to mah sister that way," Jason shouted as he pummelled
the doctor. "Ah'll kill you!"

The usher who had guided Jason to the clinic dashed around the desk to
pull the boy from the doctor. Robina tried to help but in the tussle she
was knocked down, striking her head on a leg of the overturned chair.
Jason, hearing her cry of pain, leaped off the doctor to aid her.

* * * * *

"It's only a little bump," Jason said reassuringly as he cradled her in
his arms.

The doctor got to his feet and glared at the tall, strikingly handsome
boy-man helping his sister to a chair.

That done, Jason whirled to face the doctor. "Now listen here--"

"Now you listen to me," the doctor shouted. He saw Jason gather himself
as if for another leap but Robina placed a restraining hand on his arm
and his fists slowly uncurled. "If you loved your sister as much as you
pretend to you wouldn't have helped her try to kill herself!"

"What do you mean?" the boy said sullenly.

"You know damn well what I mean," the doctor said. "You _know_ your
sister is a Sensitive. She experiences things with ten times the impact
of an ordinary person and her empathy threshold is so high a death scene
in a feelie could kill her! And if you don't know what some of the words
mean," the doctor said, noticing Jason's slight puzzlement, "you do know
what your sister is and the care that has to be taken."

The guilt in Jason's ab