MICHAEL CRICHTON

Across the room, Amy squatted by the mirror, happily making a mess of herface. She grinned at her smart image, then applied lipstick to her teeth. Itseemed a good time to ask her the question. “Amy want take trip?” Peter said.Amy loved trips, and regarded them as special treats. After an especially goodday, Elliot often took her for a ride to a nearby drive-in, where she would have anorange drink, sucking it through the straw and enjoying the commotion shecaused among the other people there. Lipstick and an offer of a trip was almosttoo much pleasure for one morning. She signed, Car trip?“No, not in the car. A long trip. Many days.”Leave house?“Yes, leave house. Many days.”This made her suspicious. The only times she had left the house for manydays had been during hospitalizations for pneumonia and urinary-tract infections;they had not been pleasant trips. She signed, Where go trip?“To the jungle, Amy.”There was a long pause. At first he thought she had not understood, but sheknew the word for jungle, and she should be able to put it all together. Amysigned thoughtfully to herself, repetitively as she always did when she wasmulling things over: Jungle trip trip jungle go trip jungle go. She set aside herlipstick. She stared at the bits of paper on the floor, and then she began to pickthem up and put them in the wastebasket.“What does that mean?” Karen Ross asked.“That means Amy wants to take a trip,” Peter Elliot said.6. DepartureTHE HINGED NOSE OF THE BOEING 747 CARGO JET lay open like a jaw,exposing the cavernous, brightly lit interior. The plane had been flown up from52