“But if your back is broken won’t you be dead?”
“No, Eddie. Dr. Darrell pats people on the back who are choking. Isn’t that right, Dr. Darrell?”
Darrell smiled down at the children as they tried to make sense of his career. He looked out at all the curious and confused faces. “Actually, Alice, some people who break their backs do go on to live. But they might get confined to a wheel chair. Or they might get prosthetic legs.”
“You mean like my Uncle Charlie?” said Eddie. “He was a soldier and now he has only one real leg and the other is a metal thing like an ice cream scoop. He can run really fast. Faster than my dad. He’s part robot now.”
“And, Alice,” Darrell turned to the young girl who had a frown on her brow that she’d been proven wrong by not one but two boys. “I do pat people on
