After breakfast, on the way to the therapist, I meet Nala in the hallway. I grasp her hand, momentarily incautious, losing myself in the act of seeing her again. “Did you—” I say and then pause, foregather myself again, “did you remember your past last night? Did you—”

She shakes her head, infinite weariness, infinite pain, shrugs and moves on, saying nothing. I pursue her like a madman, repeating in a frantic whisper, “No, Nala, did you—”

“Leave me alone,” she says. “All of you. Leave me alone. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

I look at her for the first time this morning. She is still shrunken, gray, but something else has intruded; a subtle deformity. She no longer lookswhole . “Nala!” I shriek and then somehow manage to modulate my voice, “Nala, theescape —”

“I heard. One hundred ninety-nine told me.”

“Then will you be there?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “Please let me move on. I must go to my therapist. Release me, Quir, or I will scream and that will be the end of that.”

I back from her, quivering, feeling the coldness of her flesh as it slips from my palm. “Nala—” I say.

She looks at me for only an instant, then averts her gaze and turns. “I remembered,” she says. “I remembered everything. I cannot bear to look at you. I cannot bear to stand and talk with you right now. Perhaps I will be with you tonight and perhaps again—” but I can hear no more because all the time that she has been talking quietly she has been moving away from me, going down the hall and now she is out of earshot.

I stand and look after her for a minute, pursuing her with my eyes as I would with my feet and then, realizing that I am very late for therapy and things will be even worse if I do not appear shortly, I break into a clumsy, loping run, heading toward the appropriate room, thoughts of Nala and even the escape momentarily abolished. Our frames are really not made for running in this terrain although we can simulate a walk very close to theirs and appreciate the efforts they have made to keep the enclosure as much as possible to our normal needs and physical virtues. The dimensions of the enclosure, its furnishings and geometry reveal thoughtfulness in view of the unspeakable fact, of course, that they had it built for us originally.