T-Cells

" Why doesn't she she feel more somber about Richard's perversely simultaneous good fortune ('an anguished, prophetic voice in American letters') and his decline ('You have no T-cells at all ,none that we can detect')? " (11)

T-cells are a type of white blood cells called WBCs. They protect the body from infection. AIDS effect the T-cells in a body, so Clarissa is saying that Richard had AIDS. Clarissa loves this man but does not feel somber that he sick, because she is distracted by life's beauty.

~Mallick, Indranil. "T-Cells" About.com. August 13, 2007. September 29, 2008.