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met another Carmelke in over twenty years.

    -o0o-

    Half an hour later the waiting room door opened onto a corridor with a smooth, shiny floor and meticulous off-white walls. Despite the art—original, no doubt—and the continuing classical music, a slight smell of disinfectant reminded Jason where he was. A young man in a nurse’s uniform led Jason to a door marked with the name Dr. Lawrence Steig.
    “Hello, Mr. Carmelke,” said the man behind the desk. “I’m Dr. Steig.” The doctor was lean, shorter than Jason, with brown eyes and a trim salt-and-pepper beard. His hand, like his voice, was firm and a little rough; his tie was knotted with surgical precision. “Please do sit down.”
    Jason perched on the edge of the chair, not wanting to surrender to its lushness. Not wanting to be comfortable. “How is my father?”
    “The operation went well, and he’ll be conscious soon. But I’d like to talk with you first. I believe there are some... family issues.”
    “What makes you say that?”
    The doctor stared at his personal organizer as he repeatedly snapped it open and shut. It was gold. “I’ve been working with your father for almost two years, Mr. Carmelke. The doctor-patient relationship in this type of work is, necessarily, quite intimate. I feel I’ve gotten to know him quite well.” He raised his eyes to Jason’s. “He’s never mentioned you.”
    “I’m not surprised.” Jason heard the edge of bitterness in his own voice.
    “It’s not unusual for patients of mine to be disowned by their families.”
    Jason’s hard, brief laugh startled both of them. “This has nothing to do with his... transition, Dr. Steig. My father left my mother and me when I was nine. I haven’t spoken to him since. Not once.”
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Carmelke.” He seemed sincere; Jason wondered if it were just professional bedside manner. The doctor opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and stared off into a corner for a moment. “This might not be the best time for a family reunion,” he said finally. “His condition may be a little... startling.”
    “I didn’t come all the way from Cleveland just to turn around and go home. I want to talk with my father. While I still can. And this is my last chance, right?”
    “The final operation is scheduled for five weeks from now. It can be postponed, of course. But all the papers have been signed.” The doctor placed his hands flat on the desk. “You’re not going to be able to talk him out of it.”
    “Just let me see him.”
    “I will... if he wants to see you.”
    Jason didn’t have anything to say to that.

    -o0o-

    Jason’s father was lying on his side, facing away from the door, as Jason entered. The smell of disinfectant was stronger here, and a battery of instruments bleeped quietly.
    He was bald, with just a fringe of gray hair around the back of his head. The scalp was smooth and pink and shiny, and very round—matching Jason’s own round head, too big for the standard hard hats at his work site. “Big Jase” was what it said on his own personal helmet, black marker on safety yellow plastic.
    But though his father’s head was large and round, the shoulders that moved with his breathing were too narrow, and his chest dropped rapidly away to hips that were narrower still. The legs were invisible, drawn up in front of his body. Jason swallowed as he moved around to the other side of the bed.
    His father’s round face was tan, looking more “rugged” than “wrinkled.” Deep lines ran from his nose to the corners of his mouth, and the eyebrows above his closed eyes were gray and very bushy. It was both an older and a younger face than what Jason had imagined, trying to add twenty years to a memory twenty years old.
    Jason’s gaze traveled down, past his father’s freshly-shaved chin, to the thick ruff of gray-white fur on his neck. Then further, to the gray-furred legs that lay on the bed in front of him and the paws that crossed, relaxed,