Michael is about to explain his arrival on Earth—which involves the Martians putting this false story about his past into the heads of Morris and the people at the orphanage—but it occurs to him that this explanation doesn't make Morris a liar at all. Nothing lines up. He fractures a little bit more.
His right hand goes reflexively to Lee's, covering it and squeezing hard; he keeps his eyes masked tightly with his left. He's running icy-hot, blood burning, all his cells in turmoil. Her question rotates in his mind, inescapable, and all the useless answers he keeps generating run together until he's paralyzed, suffocating. Something starts leaking out of his face, past his fingers, and he's not sure if that's really happening, if maybe his brain is finally dribbling out like he always worried it would. He shudders weakly because he can't breathe or something terrible will happen. Something worse than this, whatever that is.