" I nodded." I nodded. Then what she said dawned on me. "You have a daughter? When?" "About forty years ago," Victoria said calmly. "About two years after the accident, in fact. I wanted to get that over with, and I decided that since I was going to be bedridden anyway, that was the perfect time to have my child." "That was before the birthright selection, right?" She nodded. "What did you do with your second birthright?" "I gave it to her. She's allowed three children. Four, actually." "Four? She bought a fourth?" I asked. "I bought it for her. She wanted it, and I haven't got anything better to do with my money." She laughed softly. "Most of it goes to charity anyway." I nodded, watching her move with a calm majesty I thought I would never have. "You know, Vicki, you're as beautiful as you ever were." She smiled back. "You were never a good liar, Ken. When you first knew me I was the overweight lonely girl with braces and coke-bottle glasses. If I'm as beautiful now as I was then, I think I'm in trouble. "You know what I mean," I said. She smiled back at me and said, "Yeah, I guess I do. You yelled at me, once." "You pissed me off, once," I replied. |