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way. There’s a bit of slang you will need to get used to here. Feel free to stop me if you need a better explanation of anything I say. But why don’t I just say that we are supremely tuned into your subconscious. And we’ll just leave it at that.”
    Okay, I thought. I knew all about the subconscious. But I thought it was private. Apparently not, she was telling me. “Go on,” I said.
    “Macy, you are a bright girl. You excel in your schoolwork, correct?”
    “Yes,” I agreed.
    “We consider you one of the best and the brightest. You have a mind that can make a difference. But you are very cautious. You doubt your own instincts. You devote an inordinate amount of your mental energy imagining the worst, looking over your shoulder, expecting something bad to happen. And your fear, if it is allowed to grow unchecked, will cancel out the brightness of your future. You have everything you need now in your youth to fulfill your destiny. But mark my words, your anxieties will destroy your potential if you do not learn to manage them correctly.”
    I nodded. She continued, “Every young person is afraid of something, or feels weird and different in some way, and we work on those issues here. But we also target a more insidious problem, a generation raised on a twenty-four-hour news feed, the constant magnification of the world’s dangers, like a drumbeat in the background of your lives. Constantly looking over your shoulder and waiting for the next hammer to fall is no way to live.
    “So our operation here serves a very distinct purpose. We aim to send you back to your world stronger and better equipped to fulfill your purpose in life. We don’t know the details of your future, but let me assure you, if you tipped here, you were veering significantly off track.”
    “Wow,” I said. “So you are saying that I’m a wimp?”
    “Well, I wouldn’t use that word. We are not pejorative here, as a rule. But you are a little unbalanced—you need a better blend of imagination and reality. We don’t want to see your real potential buried under a lot of imaginary fears and self-imposed roadblocks and anxieties. During your stay here, you will have a certain amount of coursework to work out your fears and anxieties and learn to develop better mental habits. We don’t want you to enter adulthood frozen in your fears.”
    “So … I won’t be doing math after all?”
    “No. But there will be different problems to figure out. To do so, you will take chances and face risks, you will do what you are afraid to do, even if it is odd, even if no one else has ever thought of it or been asked to do it before.”
    “Are you sure it’s okay that I am here? Is there any chance someone from the hospital will find me and take me back? I didn’t officially check out so I’m nervous about that.”
    I couldn’t shake the feeling that a nurse or even the ER doctor would show up at any minute, angry.
    “No. They will not come and find you here. They think they have you under their control, so no one is looking for you. But, see, you are very worried about that, aren’t you?” She was smiling at me. “Let it go,” she urged.
    Oh, I thought, Maybe that was what she meant? I laughed a nervous giggle and promised myself to stop looking over my shoulder, or whatever she said about getting hit with the next hammer. I felt she wanted me to smile back and agree with her, so I did. She seemed to like that.
    “When you are finished here, your spirit will retain the memory of your success although your mind will not remember the specifics. It will be enough to inspire you to go forward unafraid. You might have some déjà vu, but it will be the good kind. There’s no reason to be afraid.”
    There was a knock on the door and a pair of eyes peeked in. I turned and looked at the door.
    Miss Clarice said, “Come in, Bing!” In walked a lanky young man, a shock of black hair carelessly swooped across his forehead. His brown eyes squinted