, I wish--"

I cut in on him. "Item one, I want my pants."

He gestured impatiently. "You'll get them. Now--"

"I said, I want my pants."

He began to get annoyed. "I told you--"

"And I told you I want my pants. I don't want them later or in a
while; I want my pants and I want them now."

He sat back and looked at me. "What's all this?"

I let fly. "For the record, I want my pants. I'm certainly no patient
in this morgue, and I'm not going to be treated like one, so whatever
you or anyone else has got to say to me is not going to be while I'm
as bare as a baby. My mind's made up," and I scrunched together
ungracefully on the little space that remained on my end of the cot
and pulled the sheet over my head. Kid stuff, and we both knew it.

He didn't say anything, although I could feel his eyes boring through
the flimsy sheet, and I lay there until I felt the springs creak as he
got up and I could hear his footsteps retreating. When he came back
with my clothes over his arm I was sitting up. While I was dressing he
tried to talk to me, but I would have none of it.

When I was dressed I said, "Now, you were saying--?"

I drew a long speculative stare. "Peter, what's eating you?"

I told him. "I just got tired of being shoved around. With the
physical exam over with you give me one reason why I should sit around
in my bare hide. Am I a machine? My name's Miller, not the Patient in
Cell Two."

He thought he was being reasonable. "And you think you get results by
knocking around people that are trying to help you?"

"With some people, you do. I tried talking, and that didn't work. I
got action my way, didn't I?"

He sighed. "Action, yes. Do you know what Kellner said?"

"Not interested. Whatever he's got to say to me is going to have a
please in front and a thank you after."

Wearily, "Peter, must you always act like a child?"

"No, I don't," I blazed at him. "But I'm damn well going to. I'm free,
white and a citizen, and I'm going to be treated like one, and not a
side-show freak!"

"Now, now," he soothed. "Doctor Kellner is a very famous and a very
busy man. He might not have realized--"

"Realize your hat! He's so used to living in the clouds he thinks the
world is one big moron. Well, I may be one, but no one is going to
tell me I am!"

"I see your point," and he stood up. "But you try to be a little more
cooperative. I'll see Kellner now," and he started out.

"Cooperative?" I bellowed at his