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You hiss into the phone, trying not 
to shout. “Are you crazy? You want 
me to go up to him and try to mess 
with his mouth?”
“I need you to be brave for me, Skylar. We need to 
help him, ok? We need to know what is wrong with 
him.”
Holding the swab at the end of the tongs out at 
arm’s length, your whole body is shaking as you 
approach Doctor Cleaver. He ignores you right 
until the cloth touches his lips. He growls a little 
but doesn’t look up. Then, unexpectedly, he sucks 
on the fabric. It takes you a little bit of effort to pull 
the swab out and, as you return to the analysing 
machine, you almost laugh with relief. But you 
make sure you never turn your back on him. 
As the machine starts humming, testing the 
saliva for germs, Doctor Fong asks you to do one 
last thing. “Easy one this time, Skylar. We can use 
infrared to take Doctor Cleaver’s temperature from 
a distance. Just point the camera at his face.”
you once and then ignores you, playing with his 
bandage. Doctor Fong talks you through the steps, 
as first you shine a light in his eyes. He blinks and 
turns his head away but does nothing else. Then 
you play some different loud noises. He cocks his 
head to one side and looks at you but you really 
feel he isn’t understanding what he sees.
Doctor Fong says, “Ok, this last one is a touch test 
but we can do it from a distance. Be ready to run, 
ok?”
The machine spits out a puff of air that a moment 
later hits Doctor Cleaver’s skin. He twitches but 
ignores it. You try again in the face, scared as 
anything that he will react with anger. But again, a 
twitch and nothing.
“This is good,” says Doctor Fong, “we can try going 
in for a swab. Get a bit of fabric from the fluid 
tester. Hold it with the tongs. We’re going to go 
up and ever so gently put it between his lips. Just 
give it a little rub and we’ll be able to put it in the 
machine and look for bacteria and viruses.”

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