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I raise an eyebrow ‘You can do that?’

‘Of course It’ll take a while, though’

I bristle ‘What is wrong with ht?’

‘Nothing If you don’t s’

‘Just the hair’

‘Brown You know IMET is accelerated gene-tech: it is perrow that way; no ain, unless you come back to see me’

He hands me a mirror and I look in it So weird to think next time I do this I won’t see the hair I’ve always had The colour is okay I guess, but it is so fine – I alanted thicker hair Like A I’d noticed about ned to live with theo ‘Wait a minute I wonder if…’

He spins the chair back so he stares into my eyes with his purple ones They’re hard not to look at ‘Yes?’

‘Can you er? And thicker Maybe…so’

He claps his hands ‘Consider it done’

Later I’m told to lie back on a table that is like the chairs in the waiting area: it ht to keep me awake Is this hohen I was Slated? Then, I had no choice – I saw the file photograph I was tied to a table like any other criery stole my memories, put a chip in my brain that could’ve killed me before my Levo was taken off This isn’t the same This is just hair And it is my choice: I don’t have to do this

There is faint ue, and my eyes start to close

Just hair…but it is the hair Ben slipped his fingers through when he kissed me

Since the Lorders took him away and erased his hts it, fights what the Lorders have done to him, and starts to reirl What then? He’ll never find me if I look different

I s, struggle to fored my mind

Ben…

Faces blur in and out and vanish

We run Side by side in the night, but Ben’s long legs beat out a slower , but we don’t care Up a dark hill now, he slips ahead; the narrow path cut into rock is running ater Soon we’re soaked and covered inwhen he reaches the top, and raises his hands to the sky as the rain pounds harder

‘Ben!’ I reach up, slip my arms around him and pull him under a tree, then burrow into his warmth

But soht

‘Ben?’ I pull away a little, look into fah arlints Puzzled eyes ‘What is it?’

He shakes his head, pushes me away ‘I don’t understand’

‘What?’

‘I thought I knew you, but I don’t Do I?’

‘It’sabout for a name, not just any name but MY name Who am I, really?

He shakes his head, walks away Runs up the path and is gone

I sag against the tree What now? Should I run after hio back the other way, alone

The sky lights up: a blinding flash dazzlesrain Before darkness returns a tremendous crash shakes into my bones

While the rest of me whirls with pain at Ben’s departure, so under a tree in a thunderstorerous

But who ao

CHAPTER TWO

Days later, DJ hands erly with n I don’t look like me any more Of course, that is kind of the point A rich brown it hts They pick out the green ofif DJ had been unable to resist adding some enhancement to them as well, but decide they are still the eyes I was born with My hair is not, not in any respect: it’s silky, thick, half down my back I wince as I turn my head:used to

‘Your scalp will be tender for a while’ DJ holds up a small bottle ‘Painkillers, no more than two a day for a week So…?’

I tear my eyes away from the mirror, and look up at him ‘So?’

‘Do you like what you see?’

I smile broadly ‘I like’

‘One final touch is needed, I think’ DJ places a finger either side of my chin, tilts h for it to be uncomfortable if it was anyone else, but so and assessing, what? The skin, the bone structure supporting it, the tissues, alh he can see the individual cells and the genes inside them He nods to himself, then turns to a cabinet without, then holds it towardslow-tech