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got to do all the work, them. Donkeys serve Livers, Livers
hold the power, us, by votes. But if we hold the power, us, how come we
can’t get the cleaner ‘bot and the peeler ’bot and the warden ‘bot
fixed?”
    “Since when you been at school?” I joked, trying to derail Lizzie,
trying to keep Annie from getting madder. “I thought you just played,
you, down by the river with Susie Mastro and Carlena Terrell. You’re an
agro Liver, you!”
    She looked at me, her, like I was a broken ‘bot myself.
    Annie said shortly, “You
are
lucky, you to be a Liver. And
you say so if anybody asks you.”
    “Like who?”
    “
Anybody
. You shouldn’t go to school so much anyway. You
don’t never see the other children, you, going so much. Do you want to
be a freak?” She scowled.
    Lizzie turned to me. “Billy, who’s going to do something about them
rabid raccoons if nobody fixes the warden ‘bot?”
    I glanced at Annie. I got to my feet, me, puffing. “I don’t know,
Lizzie. Just stay inside, you, all right?”
    Lizzie said, “But what if one of them raccoons bites somebody?”
    I had the sense, me, to stay quiet. Finally Annie said, “The medunit
still works.”
    “But what if it breaks?”
    “It won’t break.”
    “But what if it
does
?”
    “It won’t!”
    “How do you
know
?” Lizzie said, and I finally saw, me,
that this was some sort of private scooter race between mother and
daughter. I didn’t understand it, me, but I could see Lizzie was ahead.
She said again, “How do you know, you, that the medunit won’t break
too?”
    “Because if it did, Congresswoman Land would send somebody, her, to
fix it. The medunit is part of her taxes.”
    “She didn’t send nobody to fix the cleaning ‘bot. Or the peeler
’bot. Or the—”
    “The medunit’s different!” Annie snapped. She hacked at an apple so
hard that pulp flew off the table I stole for her from the cafe.
    Lizzie said, “Why is the medunit so different?”
    “Because it just is! If the medunit breaks, people could die, them.
No politician is going to let Livers die. They’d never get elected
again!”
    Lizzie considered this. I thought, me, that the scooter race was
over, and I breathed more easy. Lately it seemed like they fought all
the time. Lizzie was growing up, her, and I hated it. It made it harder
to keep her safe.
    She said, “But people could die from rabid raccoons, too. So how
come you said District Supervisor Samuelson probably won’t send nobody
to fix the warden ‘bot, but Congresswoman Land would send somebody to
fix the medunit ’bot?”
    I laughed. I couldn’t help it—she was so smart, her. Annie scowled
at me and right away I was sorry I laughed. Annie snapped, “So maybe I
was wrong, me! Maybe somebody’ll fix the warden ‘bot! Maybe I don’t
know nothing, me!”
    Lizzie
said calmly, “Billy said too, him, that nobody would
fix it. Billy, how come you—”
    I said, “Because even donkeys don’t got the money, them, that they
used to have to pay taxes with. And too much stuff gets broke nowadays.
They got to make choices, them, about what to fix.”
    Lizzie
said, “But why do the donkey politicians got less
money for taxes, them? And how come more stuff gets broke?”
    Annie flung her peeled apples into a belt dish and dumped dough on
them like it was mud.
    “Because other countries make cheap Y-energy now. Twenty years ago
we was the only ones, us, who could make it, and now we’re not. But the
stuff breaking—”
    Annie burst out, “You believe them lies politicians say on the
grids? Land and Samuelson and Drinkwater? Pisswater! All lies, every
time one of them opens their mouth, them, it’s lies—they just want to
get out of paying their rightful taxes! The taxes we earned, us, with
our votes! And I told you not to fill up the child’s head with them
secondhand donkey lies, Billy Washington!”
    “Ain’t lies,” I said, but I hated having Annie mad at me worse than
I hated having her mad