Go in for your appointment

You quickly decide that the young woman looks far too shy for you to make any progress with her in the time you have available. Perhaps she will still be sitting there when you are done with whatever this extra credit activity is. You go inside and find the room where you were told to report.

The room looks much like you would expect a college health clinic to appear. There is a desk near the door and two empty hospital beds in opposite corners. Curtains hung from the ceiling can be pulled to give some measure of privacy to whomever might be occupying one or both of the beds. Adjacent to each bed is a bank of monitors, sophisticated-looking scientific equipment, and racks holding bags of various kinds of I.V. fluids.

Amy is standing in front of one of the sets of monitors, referring to a clipboard and making adjustments on the equipment. She turns when she hears you enter. “Ah… Mr. Humphrey,” she says. “You’re a bit early.”

You flash her your most dashing smile and say, “Trust me… That’s the only time anyone every said that I came too soon.”

Amy seems immune to your charms and rolls her eyes. “I assume you have read the literature you were given that explains everything about this research project? Do you have any questions?”

You have not, in fact, read anything in the packet you were given. Your mind was on other things, such as your sincere hope that Amy would be dressed in a skimpy lab coat and nothing else.

You pull out the papers and flip through them casually. You gain no additional understanding from the exercise, however.

“If you have no questions, go ahead and sign on the last page, and we’ll begin,” Amy says, handing you a pen.