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Helen wanted the paper book off the counter , because two people were already waiting for the same chair . Dr . Adeyemi still kept a hardback there , with a frayed ribbon , because he did not trust the screen the practice had already paid to use . Helen ran the front desk . When a call came in and he was between patients , he wrote the name in the book and said the computer could catch up later . Later never arrived . Mrs . Adler had a cleaning on the screen . Her sister , who had phoned the evening before , existed only in the book . Helen had left the sister in the waiting room with a magazine and a promise she was not sure she could keep . She laid the open book beside the keyboard and turned the monitor so he could see both . " You wrote her in , " Helen said . " You never put her on the list . That time already belongs to Mrs . Adler . " He was not angry . He had the tired patience he used when a filling ran long . " If the screen fails , the book is still here . " " The screen did not fail , " she said . " You stepped around it . Someone has to go home , and I would rather you chose who . " Mrs . Adler checked her watch and gave Helen the small smile people use when a delay still feels polite . The sister did not smile . She watched the doorway . Dr . Adeyemi drew a finger down the morning's names . Plenty were on the screen as well . A few lived only in ink . A name on the screen was missing from the book : a man Helen had moved earlier after another patient canceled . The doctor had been about to offer that time to someone else , without seeing that it was already taken . " I thought I was being careful , " he said . " You were careful in two places , " Helen said . He shut the book . The ribbon stuck out . He did not put it in the drawer , where he could pull it out again . He pushed it past the hand sanitizer , to the far edge of the counter , where his hand would not find it out of habit . " Call the sister , " he said . " Offer her the first opening after lunch , and tell her I mixed it up . Then show me how you moved that man . I want to make the next change myself , with you watching , so I stop copying the book onto the screen after the fact . " Helen picked up the phone . The sister lifted her head , hopeful and already a little sharp . Helen met her eye and nodded .
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