"It won't muss your hair." Doris patted the pillow. "It's silk."

My chair was in its upright position. If all went well, I-my body, that is-wouldn't be in this place very long.

Somewhere in this building was my renter. She was sitting in a chair like mine. Soon, she was going to be controlling my body, as if she were me.

The thought gave me a shiver.

"Are you cold?" Doris asked.

Terry became alert, ready to get me a blanket.

"She's fine," Trax said. Our eyes met. No hiding anything from him.

Terry wheeled over the anesthesiology cart with the cone. Soon, I would be out cold. Soon, my body would belong to someone else.

I was dreaming. And I knew I was dreaming. They hadn't told me this could happen. But there I was, dreaming. I saw Tyler, running out of a house by a lake. He had a huge smile on his face. He ran through the grass and picked up a fishing pole.

He looked healthy. I wanted to tell Michael, but I couldn't find him. I ran into the house, a large, woodsy cabin. He wasn't in any of the rooms. Finally, I found him on the deck overlooking the lake. But when I ran to him, he turned and it wasn't Michael.

I heard voices far away. Mumbling.

I recognized them. A woman's voice. My mother?

"Her eyes fluttered," the woman said.

Mom?

"Callie? Kitten?" a male voice said.

"Don't call her that."

I opened my eyes.

"How do you feel?" It was a woman, but not my mother. It was an Ender.

"Callie?" A man wearing eyeliner bent over me. "How you doing, girl?"

"Where am I?"

The woman looked concerned. "You're at Prime Destinations. You just had your first rental."

I remembered this woman. "Doris?"

A relieved smile softened her face. "Yes, Callie."

"How did it go?"

She patted my shoulder. "You were a big success."

I was dying to know where my body had been. What sports did I play? My arms weren't particularly sore. Same with my legs. So weird being unaware for a whole day where your body went and what it did. Who you met, who you liked, or didn't like. What if my renter had made someone mad? Would I have a new enemy?

I looked at my body. All parts in working order. One down, two to go. I was one-third of the way to my goal.

Trax asked me a list of questions, a kind of debriefing. There wasn't too much to say; I couldn't remember anything other than my dream. He was interested in that and recorded it. Evidently, it wasn't unusual to dream. He wanted to know if I felt rested and refreshed, and I had to admit that I did.

Terry checked my blood pressure and my temperature and nodded to Trax.

"It's all good, little lady," he said. "You're good to go on your next rental."

"I don't get a break?"

"What for? Your renter ate and took care of all your bodily needs," Trax said.

"Not that kind of break," I said. "I need to go somewhere."

His eyes widened. He leaned forward and called out, "Doris."

Within moments, Doris came clicking into the room. "What's wrong, Callie?"

"Can I go now, before the next rental?"

"Leave? Why?"

I looked down. Maybe it was better not to press this.

She put her hand on my back. "Why not just carry on? It will be over before you know it. So much work has been invested in you. Why risk your payout? You could get an injury out there." She fluttered her hand and grimaced as if the outside world was hell.

She was partly right. But it was where I lived, after all.

"If you don't fulfill your contract-providing a healthy, fit body-you won't get paid."

"Do you have another renter waiting?" I asked.

"Yes. And she's a ..."

"... lovely woman?" I rolled my eyes. "Okay, let's do it."

"Wonderful. This one will be three days."

The second rental flew by, like the first. One thing I learned: when you're out cold, time sails. I had strange dreams again but couldn't remember them. There was one odd thing I noticed when I came to. I had a four-inch gash on my right forearm. It didn't hurt-they must have used some numbing spray-but it was hideous. Doris got me into the laser room. They healed it so there were no scars, but I wanted to know how it had happened. They wouldn't tell me. Maybe they didn't know.

Doris took me back to her office. It was decorated in whites and golds, sort of neo-Baroque. She had me sit and informed me that my third and last rental would be for an entire month.

"A month?" I gripped the chair. "I can't be away for a whole month."

"This is normal. We start with shorter terms to make sure everything's fine before we move to a longer rental."

"Nobody told me this would be for that long. I have to see my little brother."

"Your brother?" She pushed back a lock of hair from her eye. "You never said you had a brother."

"What's wrong with that?"

"You were expressly asked whether you had any living relatives when you signed with us."

"I thought you meant parents, grandparents. He's only seven."

Her shoulders relaxed. "Seven." She stared at the wall. "I see. Well, they're still not going to let you go. They can't take that risk."

"What can happen to me? I might cut myself?" I stood and gestured to the arm where the gash had been. "I take better care of myself than your lovely renters do."

She shook her head. "Sorry, Callie, it just isn't done."

"I want to talk to Mr. Tinnenbaum."

"You sure you want to do that?"

"Positive."

Doris spoke to the unseen microphone in the room. "Mr. Tinnenbaum, please."

She straightened her suit and smoothed her hair. Then she started that awful nail drumming on a counter. After a few moments, Mr. Tinnenbaum marched into the room.

"Callie is requesting a leave to see ... her brother." Doris put emphasis on the word "brother."

Tinnenbaum shook his head. "Impossible."

"No one ever told me I'd be gone for an entire month," I said. "Shouldn't that have been clear before I started?"

"You never asked. And you didn't tell us you had a brother," he said. He shifted his weight. "As for the scheduling, we often don't know the schedule until we've already begun the process. That was the case this time."

"But you knew that might happen. I didn't even know a month was possible."

"It's in the contract," he said.

"In the fine print?" I turned to Doris. "Something that important should have been said."

"Just like you should have told us you had a brother," Tinnenbaum said.

Doris looked at the floor.

"I really need to see him before I go, to let him know how long this will be. He's only seven and I'm all he's got."

"Perhaps we could have someone check up on him?" Doris looked at Mr. Tinnenbaum.

Tinnenbaum's head gave the most imperceptible shake.

"I don't want to be difficult." I made a point of standing as tall as I could. "I'm guessing the process goes a lot smoother if you have a cooperative donor. But I won't be feeling very cooperative if I can't speak to my brother first."

Tinnenbaum nervously tapped his toe, as if it helped him think. "What time is her exchange tomorrow?" he asked Doris.

"Eight a.m.," she said.

He chuffed like a horse. "I will give you three hours and a bodyguard who will watch you every second. Don't do anything foolish, because we can monitor you via that chip in your head." He pointed at me. "Keep this body exactly as it is. Because right now, it still belongs to us."

I never once saw his teeth. Guess he was all out of smiles.

I followed Doris back down the hallway. "I'll have to get you some fresh clothes," she said. "I'll meet you in your guest room."

She ducked into another doorway, and I continued on to what I remembered as my guest room. But when I opened the door, there was another girl standing there. She was about my age but had short black hair. She was changing her clothes, already in a pair of flowered pants, but held a top to her chest to cover her bra.

"Sorry," I said. "I must have the wrong room."

I realized her room was decorated exactly like mine, only in shades of green. I closed the door. The next door was my room. In pink.

Doris came a minute later, holding some white pants and a top. "You'll want to shower. And here's a change of clothes. You've been wearing those too long."

"Where are my own clothes?"

"Honey, we disposed of those the minute they came off you. You can keep these."

"What about my handlite?"

Doris opened a drawer. She took out the handlite and held it with as few fingers as possible. "Rodney will escort you home. No need to stop for food. You won't be hungry for hours."

"I won't? Why?"

"You've already eaten."

It was so weird having people know more about your body than you did.

Doris walked me to an underground parking structure that connected to the back of Prime Destinations. Rodney stood by a town car. He had a short fuzz of silver hair, and his biceps were so massive that his suit looked ready to burst.

He noticed I was carrying the handlite. "You won't need that," he said. "I've got a mega-torch."

I put the handlite on anyway. It felt good and solid to have it on my wrist again.

"She's your responsibility," Doris said to him. "Get her back here no later than twenty-two hundred."

"Yes, ma'am." He opened the back door for me, and I climbed in.

Rodney got into the driver's seat. Doris watched us go.

I noticed a food container on the seat next to me.

"That's for your brother." Rodney gestured to the container. "From Doris."

It smelled good. "Yum."