the Human Race reclined on a psychologist's couch. Dr. Evolutionary Biology sat crossed-legged in the chair opposite, listening intently and taking swift notes on a legal pad.

"We've talked a bit about your adolescence," said Dr. Evolutionary Biology.

"Yeah," said the Human Race, "the whole empire phase. I had so many hormones coursing through me. I was noticing changes in my social body, and started noticing other cultures, and all the dreams about invading and conquest . . ."

"Yes," said Dr. Evolutionary Biology, "but I want to press back further than that. Tell me about your childhood."

"That's tough," said the Human Race. "I can't really remember that much. I fear I might have endured some traumatic experiences. The past is so hazy . . . so dark. So many memories blocked out."

"Why do you think the blocked memories are traumatic?" asked Dr. Evolutionary Biology.

"I get fragments sometimes," said the Human Race. "I vaguely recall killing my brother, Homo Neanderthallus. He moved out of home when I was an infant. I found him living in Europe. I have dreams, sometimes, where he's talking to me, his corpse mangled and I look down and see blood on my hands."

Dr. Evolutionary Biology glanced up from behind his round spectacles. "What about your father?"

"I don't remember my father. He left a few things, but nothing conclusive. I used to think . . . get this . . . I used to think he was God, but now I suspect hominoids. Anyway, whoever he was, he left home before I can remember. I never knew my father. I was left to fend for myself. My mother was occasionally nurturing, she permitted agriculture, but mostly she was just abusive, pelting me with hurricanes and earthquakes and drought. I had no mentor, no guide, I was confronted with all these difficult, unanswerable questions, why suffering? why death? and no life line, no one to turn to for help." The Human Race started crying. "You have no idea how difficult it is, being the only intellectually advanced species in the universe! You have no idea how close I've come to suicide, especially this past century! I found the key to Dad's nuclear fission cabinet in an Austrian patent clerk, and that almost did me in right there. Here I am, posed on the brink of adulthood, and I . . . and I . . ."

"There there," said Dr. Evolutionary Biology, handing the Human Race a Kleenex. "There there."