of them had too much class. The rest of them had too much to hide.
In the middle of pumping Michael's hand, Park suddenly grabbed his stomach. "Man, I've got to go to the bathroom again." He was on his way when he suddenly jumped as if shot. "Wait a second, Michael!
You're not such a nice guy. You poisoned us! Where are those pills?"
Michael started to laugh so hard that Robin looked worried that he would burst one of his precious kidneys. He fell on the carpet, losing all control. Park was red with humiliation. He actually kicked Michael. "Damn you! This can't have been a joke! You must have poisoned us! We're all sick!"
"Yes, oh yes, all poisoned!" Michael gasped, quickly launching into a second binge. There was nothing they could do but wait. Finally, recovering, he managed to pull his orange pills out of his pocket and throw them to Park. With Sol peering over his shoulder, Park studied the prescription label.
"This is Aureomycin!" he complained. "What kind of antidote is that?"
Worn out, Michael sat up. "It's the best remedy there is for bacterial dysentery."
"Montezuma's Revenge!" Bert exclaimed, showing the knowledgeable fellow he was when it came to the important things in life.
"Impossible," Park said. "Bacterial dysentery takes several days to incubate."
"This is what I meant about you all having to forgive me. Lena's partly to blame. She pointed out the wonderful possibility to me when I first arrived."
"What did you do?" Lena asked sharply.
"I removed the filter from the water purifier. When was the last time you changed it? The thing was a mess: all slimy and green." He started to laugh again. "It had the worst smell."
Shani shook her head. "I don't want to hear this."
But Michael insisted. "I put the filter into the storage tank that feeds the kitchen tap. The bacteria didn't have to incubate. You swallowed billions of the tiny creatures!"
Lena was disgusted. "That's absolutely the grossest thing I've ever heard in my life!"
Park was mad. "That was totally uncalled for!"
Sol agreed with them both. "Yeah!"
Michael grinned at their suddenly hostile faces. They provided him with endless amusement, it seemed.
"It's your own fault," he said. "Didn't any of you read that big sign when we drove across the border? It said:DON'T DRINK THE WATER !"
EPILOGUE
The Stanford University Medical Centre was not the towering thirty-storey-plus structure Shani had expected. It was, rather, only a couple of storeys tall, although the place covered almost an entire city block, and was surrounded by beautiful manicured lawns and a maze of cement walkways overrun with white-clad medical personnel and slow-moving patients. She was glad to see it. They had made the drive from Santa Barbara in one fell swoop. Park had borrowed Robin's Porsche, and the high numbers at the end of the speedometer had seemed to fascinate him. A speeding ticket one hundred miles ago hadn't dented his fascination. What had really started her worrying was the organ donor card he had had her fill out when she had got in the car.
"It's big," Shani said. The day sparkled and the sun was dazzling. A cool, salty breeze from the not-too-distant San Francisco Bay poured through the car's open windows.
"A very astute observation," Park said.
"How will we find Robin in all of this?"
"She sent me a map."
"Where is it?"
"On the back of a letter she wrote me."
"And that's at home, right?"
"It was a personal letter. But never fear, I memorized the directions." Without signalling, he made a sharp right. They rolled down a shadowed alley towards the parking lot. They had to take a ticket, and would have to pay, but who could complain when they were cruising in a car worth forty grand? While searching for a vacant spot, Park asked, "Do you feel any different?"
"I feela lot different."
"So do I."
She let a minute go by before asking. "What do we feel different about?"
"Graduating, of course. For three weeks now we have ceased to be immature, irresponsible adolescents."
"Doing ninety on the way up here wasn't irresponsible?"
"It showed I am a man of consequence."
Shani took away his rearview mirror and began to brush her hair for the twentieth time, worrying that she had on too much make-up. Maybe Michael preferred the natural look. She hadn't worn lipstick down in Mexico and he had liked her there. And this yellow dress she and her mother had bought yesterday was way too formal for a hospital visit.
"All I remember from graduation night was being sick," she said.
"You drank too