IT’S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER to be a bastard.

By the time I get into the courtroom, my hands are trembling. Part of it, of course, is the same old same old.

But part of it involves the fact that my client is about as responsive as a boulder beside me; and the womanI’m crazy about is the one I am about to put on the witness stand. I glance once at Julia as the judge enters;she makes a point of looking away.

My pen rolls off the table. “Anna, can you get that for me?”

“I don’t know. I’d be wasting time and manpower, wouldn’t I?” she says, and the goddamn pen stays on thefloor.

“Are you ready to call your next witness, Mr. Alexander?” Judge DeSalvo asks, but before I can even sayJulia’s name Sara Fitzgerald asks to approach the bench.

I gear up for yet another complication, and sure enough, opposing counsel doesn’t disappoint. “Thepsychiatrist that I’ve asked to call as a witness has an appointment at the hospital this afternoon. Would it beall right with the Court if we took her testimony out of order?”

“Mr. Alexander?”

I shrug. It’s just a stay of execution for me, when you get right down to it. So I sit down beside Anna andwatch a small, dark woman with a bun twisted ten degrees too tight for her face take the stand. “Please stateyour name and address for the record,” Sara begins.

“Dr. Beata Neaux,” the psychiatrist says. “1250 Orrick Way, Woonsocket.”

Dr. No. I look around the courtroom, but apparently I’m the only James Bond fan. I take out a legal pad andwrite a note to Anna: If she married Dr. Chance, she’d be Dr. Neaux-Chance.

A smile twitches at the corner of Anna’s mouth. She picks up the pen that dropped and writes back: If she gota divorce and then married Mr. Buster, she’d be Dr. Neaux-Chance-Buster.

We both start to laugh, and Judge DeSalvo clears his throat and looks at us. “Sorry, Your Honor,” I say.

Anna passes me another note: I’m still mad at you.

Sara walks toward her witness. “Can you tell us, Doctor, the nature of your practice?”

“I’m a child psychiatrist.”

“How did you first meet my children?”

Dr. Neaux glances at Anna. “About seven years ago, you brought in your son, Jesse, because of somebehavioral problems. Since then I’ve met with all the children, over various occasions, to talk about differentissues that have come up.”

“Doctor, I called you last week and asked you to prepare a report giving your expert opinion aboutpsychological harm Anna might suffer if her sister dies.”

“Yes. In fact, I did a little research. There was a similar case in Maryland in which a girl was asked to be adonor for her twin. The psychiatrist who examined the twins found they had such a strong identification witheach other that if the expected successful results were achieved, it would be of immense benefit to thedonor.” She looks at Anna. “In my opinion, you’re looking at a very similar set of circumstances here. Annaand Kate are very close, and not just genetically. They live together. They hang out together. They haveliterally spent their entire lives together. If Anna donates a kidney that saves her sister’s life, it’s a tremendousgift—and not just to Kate. Because Anna herself will continue to be part of the intact family by which shedefines herself, rather than a family that’s lost one of its members.”

This is such a load of psychobabble bullshit I can barely see to swim through it, but to my shock, the judgeseems to be taking this with great sincerity. Julia, too, has her head tilted and a tiny frown line between herbro............