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doll a try?” Nell asked.
    Eyeing these four women who’d cared for real newborns and each other, some of Caroline’s former bravery and self-confidence returned. “Why not?”
    How hard could it be?
    A baby was crying.
    Whose baby? Was she in a restaurant? Caroline must have been dreaming. The crying continued.
    She rolled over and tried to open her eyes. Surfacing enough to get her bearings, she remembered the doll. She wasn’t dreaming. If only she were.
    She must have been insane to think this would be easy. She must have been insane to agree to try it in the first place.
    A high-pitched waaa-waaa-waaaa was coming from the makeshift crib in the corner. Nell had been right. It sounded like a real newborn’s cry. Caring for it was much more difficult than Caroline had anticipated.
    She swung her feet over the side of her bed and sat up. It was pitch-black outside the windows. Inside, every light was on. It was only two in the morning. The night was never going to end.
    She padded to the makeshift crib. Being careful to support the doll’s head, she picked it up the way Nell had shown her.
    “Waaa,” said the doll.
    Nell and Tori had dropped the doll off that afternoon. It was Nell who’d demonstrated how the baby worked, pointing out the sensors located on the doll’s lips, neck, back, tummy and bottom and explaining how they respondedto the sensors on the bottle, and two separate diapers. The doll also responded to rocking motions and sudden movements.
    Before leaving, Nell had said, “Wear comfortable clothes and don’t panic.”
    Caroline had managed quite well for the first five hours. When the doll cried, she inserted the key, which looked like a round magnet, into the slot on the doll’s abdomen. Once the data was recorded in the main sensor, it was up to Caroline to determine the doll’s “needs.”
    Tori had called earlier, and Caroline assured her it was going well. Just then, the doll had simulated a burp, followed by a gentle coo. “Did you hear that?” she’d asked.
    “I heard it.”
    “This isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.”
    “It’s still early. Call me if you need me,” Tori had insisted.
    After the first two episodes had gone smoothly, Caroline had been confident she could handle one computerized doll in a simulated real-life setting for one night. But then midnight struck and things had gone downhill fast.
    Caroline had kept her head the first time the doll hadn’t quieted after she’d placed the bottle to its lips, after she’d changed the diaper, after she’d tried burping it and rocking it, after she’d tried everything and nothing worked. After fifteen minutes of solid crying, she’d almostcalled Tori. Suddenly and miraculously and for no apparent reason, the doll had quieted. Caroline had been afraid to move, fearing the sensors might pick up even the most insidious change in the atmosphere. Reminding herself it was just a doll, she’d tiptoed to the bathroom and got ready for bed. She’d barely closed her eyes when the crying started all over again.
    Since then, she’d lost count of how many times the alarm had sounded. Caroline had done everything, in every order, to try to appease the baby.
    “Do you want your two-o’clock feeding?” Feeling silly to be talking to a doll, she reached into her pocket for the key. Oh dear. Where was the key?
    Wondering if it might have fallen out while she’d slept, she started for the bed, only to stop and retrace her steps to the doll. Deciding to pick it up, she cradled the computerized cry-baby in her arm, then went in search of the key.
    The doll cried and cried.
    Caroline threw back the sheet and looked beneath her pillow. She discovered an earring and a bookmark, but not the key. It had to be here.
    “Waaaa,” said the doll.
    She tore the bed apart.
    “There, there.” Caroline checked the nightstand. She looked under the bed and behind the dresser. She searchedthe bathroom and kitchen counter and the