that afternoon and how she had come to ask the question that had started the conversation. “But what you just said sounded as though I should have known about the survey all along.”
Annie Oliphant frowned. “But I thought you did know,” she said. “Jason’s part of the survey too. Jason, and Randy Corliss, and two younger boys.”
“I see,” Sally breathed. Suddenly she felt numb. What was going on? And what had Annie just said about Randy Corliss?
“He seems to have run away,” the nurse answered when Sally repeated her question out loud. “Except that his mother thinks he was kidnaped.” She shook her head sympathetically. “I suppose she just can’t accept the idea that her own child might have run away from her, and she’s trying to find some other reason for the fact that he’s gone. Some reason that takes the final responsibility off herself.”
“I suppose so,” Sally murmured as she rose from the chair. Her mind was still spinning, but at least she knew where to go next “Thank you for talking to me, Annie. You’ve been very helpful.” Then her gaze fell on the file folder that still contained Jason’s health records. “Could I have a copy of that?”
Annie hesitated. She had already broken the rules by giving Lucy Corliss a copy of Randy’s file, and she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to repeat the offense. Still, the circumstances of the two mothers seemed to her to have certain parallels. She made up her mind and disappeared from the room for a few minutes. Finally she returned and handed Sally the Xerox copies of the file. “I don’t see how I’ve helped you, but if I have, I’m glad,” she said. She walked with Sally to the front door and watched as Sally hurried down the steps and went to her car. Then she returned to her office and stared at the file cabinet for a moment She began straightening up her office, but as she worked, her mind kept going back to CHILD and the survey. How much information did they have? And what were they using it for? She didn’t, she realized, have the faintest idea. All she really knew was that slowly, all over the country, banks of information were being built up about everybody. But what did it mean?
For one thing, no one would be able to disappear. No matter who you were, or where you went, anyone who really wanted to could find you. All they’d have to do would be to ask the computers.
Annie wasn’t sure that was a good idea.
Sometimes people need to hide, and they should be able to.
For the first time, it occurred to Annie Oliphant that the whole idea of using computers to watch people was very frightening.
If there was a computer watching nine-year-old boys grow up, was there also, somewhere, a computer watching her?
While Jason Montgomery played in the tiny backyard, Sally and Lucy sat in Lucy’s kitchen, sipping coffee and talking. The first moments had been difficult, as each of the women tried to apologize for not having offered her sympathy earlier, yet each of them understood the pain of the other.
For the last half-hour they had been discussing the survey their children were involved in.
“But what are they doing?” Sally asked yet again. “What are they looking for?”
Lucy shrugged helplessly. “I wish I could tell you, Sally. Maybe next week I’ll be able to. I’ve got an appointment on Monday, and I won’t leave until I know what that study is all about.”
“Do you really think it has anything to do with Randy’s disappearance?”
Lucy sighed. “I don’t know anything anymore. But it’s the only really odd thing I can come up with. Extra-healthy boys. They’re studying extra-healthy boys; but how could they know which ones are going to be extra-healthy when they’re babies? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe it does,” Sally said thoughtfully. “Maybe they started out with a huge population and began narrowing it down as some of the subjects began showing the traits they were looking for. Maybe by the time the children get to be Randy’s and Jason’s ages, they’ve been able to focus on the population they’re interested in.”
“And maybe the moon is made out of green cheese,” Lucy snapped. “Think about it, Sally. Annie Oliphant told you there are only four boys at the school involved in the survey and all of them are younger than Randy. According to your idea, there should be a lot of children