FICTION

CHALLENGE

Dee Raymond

Dr. Hector Mirandez' face was livid with fury. "Such a suggestion impugns my professional reputation!" he spluttered.

"Not at all," Dr. Helen Mostyn's voice was losing its habitual reasonableness and becoming exasperated. The other staff members were drifting away from the heated argument to the other end of the Psychiatric Staff Lounge. "You just have a bee in your bonnet about every type of abnormal disorder. I maintain, doctor," her voice angrily stressed the first syllable of his title, "that there are some transvestites clever enough to disguise their sex so that even you," she paused for effect, "even you could not tell they were men."

"Impossible!" Mirandez thundered. He turned away to seek sup- port from among his colleagues. He appealed to Ray Martin, who was rapidly gulping a cup of coffee. "Ray," he shouted across the room. "Did you hear what this crazy woman is saying?"

Ray looked over at the vivacious Helen, sitting so coolly on the room's only sofa. She winked one of her blue eyes at him and stuck out her tongue at the back of Mirandez' head. Ray Martin almost choked, spitting coffee over his clean, white coat. "Don't ask me, Hec," he said. "I'm afraid I agree with Helen. There have been times in my career...'

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He was unable to finish the sentence for Mirandez had snorted and turned away, looking for support elsewhere. Drs. Burton and Fielding remembered urgent calls in their departments and left. Mike Pareno raised a hand in a gesture to indicate he wanted no part of the argument. "I pass," was all the comment the cynical Esther Bernstein would make.

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