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Show 196 folders. "I don't know if you know this or not," said one of the girls to the woman, "but if you give eight times in four weeks you get a bonus." "How wonderful," said the woman. A minute later they were lying side by side on cots twenty-two and twenty-three, where they could see a man in white shoes and pants and white lab jacket moving stealthily around the room on rubber soles. He was obviously the one who would take their blood. They kept their heads up. In this part of the building the distraction of the television had been replaced by the drone of an FM radio station, a slight improvement. The woman had removed her shoes and placed them beneath her cot. "It's not that bad," said the man. "The worst part is the waiting. Here, hold my hand." They stretched their arms toward each other, through the open air between the cots, but they were too far apart to touch. After a while the man in white came and stood between them. He was smiling. "You're a couple, aren't you?" he said. His eyes bounced back and forth between them but finally came to rest on the woman. Then he stepped closer to her cot. He picked up the folder on her stomach. "First time, huh?" he said, glancing into it. She nodded. |