“Nice.” She tried not to imagine a huge sack bloated with pink goo attached to her arm. It didn’t work.
“Glaucoma isn’t so bad, in terms of symptoms,” Dr. Hazard Pay said. “You’ve been really lucky, so far, especially given how far your angioma extends. Until now, you’ve been seizure-free for three years, and you made it through most of school before that. And you’re still physically active, with no weakness on your right side. That’s probably what helped prevent all the other symptoms, all that exercise. And your diet. It says here you eat a lot of good fats, and stay away from sugar. And the anticonvulsants, obviously.”
Hwa nodded. “The angioma could be atrophying this side of my brain, though, right?”
“It’s possible. The stain is bundling up the nerves and blood vessels that sit right on top of your cerebral cortex. So if you had a silent seizure, that might be a sign that the bundle is getting tighter.” He squeezed a fist so she could see. “Or headaches. Have you had any bad headaches, lately?”
“Just my boss,” Hwa said.
Dr. Hazard Pay laughed. He waved open the door to the optometry area. Projections of eyes woke up and winked at them as they passed. Some were blue. Some were green. Some were bloodshot. Some had cataracts. It was as though every surveillance device in the entire area had developed some special little avatar to wink and laugh at the humans in the vicinity.
“So you’ve had a robotic examination before, right?”
“What?”
He waved open another door to a darkened room. Inside was a tall white machine with six limbs and many eyes. As the room lit up, so did the machine. It fluttered awake, lights blinking on and limbs articulating delicately into a gesture that was most likely meant to indicate welcome and not I am about to eat your eyes.
“This is Dr. Mantis,” Dr. Hazard Pay said. “He just got a new upgrade, so he’s good to go. Just let him dilate your pupils first, and then he can check the pressure on your optic nerve.”
“Hello,” Dr. Mantis said. It held out a claw. It had a very gentle British accent. Hwa had no idea why all the robots had to be Brits. Probably the same reason Brits were always cast as Nazis.
Hwa turned to Hazard Pay. “I can’t have a real doctor?”
“I am a real doctor,” Dr. Mantis said.
“Mantis is fine! Better than fine! He’s great! Mantis, send me that report when you finish up, okay?”
“Yes, Dr. Rockwell.”
Rockwell. That was his name. The door shut behind him.
“I will take the best of care with your eyes,” Dr. Mantis said. It pivoted on a giant ball in its lower thorax and hove into her vision. It was still holding out a claw. Hwa grabbed it and gave it a shake. It had a very gentle grip. It used another, lower arm to pull a chair over. “Please sit down.”
Hwa sat. The lights dimmed. One of Dr. Mantis’s claws came up to clutch her chin. Another held her forehead in place. “Now, I’m going to dilate your eye. Please keep it open.”
“Aye.”
Something squirted into her eye.
“Now I’m going to look at how much pressure there is on the optic nerve, and whether it’s changed colour. If there’s something abnormal, I’ll map your visual field with this light.”
Something on its body blinked.
“Now I’m going to come very close to you, and look deep in your eye.”
The grips on her face tightened. Dr. Mantis rolled closer to her. One of its eyes came level with hers. It was a very large camera. As she looked into it, she thought she saw mirrors shifting position.
“What kind of changes have you noticed in your vision?” Dr. Mantis asked.
“I…” She swallowed. Her face felt numb. “I had a sense of derealization and depersonalization.”
“Did you disassociate?”
“Only for a minute. And then I thought I saw a seizure aura.”
“Did the aura take over your vision?”
She almost shook her head, but the claws held her fast. “No. It was localized.”
“How big was the aura?”
“Big. Like, the size of a person.”
“Was it black?”
“No. It was the other kind, I think. It looked like…” She licked her lips. Just remembering it raised the hairs on her arms. “It looked like drops of water on glass. Does that make sense?”
“Not really, but our visual fields are very different. I can see in infrared, and you can’t.” The mirrors shifted again in Dr. Mantis’s eye. “Did you have a seizure, after seeing this aura?”
“No. Dr. Rockwell says it was probably a silent seizure—all aura, no twitching. So maybe I got off light this time.”
“Have you experienced any blind spots?”
“Blind spots?”
“Holes, in your vision. Things you know must be there, but you can’t quite see.”
That was was one way of describing it. “Maybe?”
“Have you engaged in any accessory reality activities, lately?”
Hwa tried not to frown. “Sorry?”
“Helmets, goggles, layers, things like that. Have you put on a new pair of specs recently?”