2

Bitsy and Delbert Parker, the couple who lived in Dalceda Delahoussaye’s big house, were decent, intelligent people. Pace became good friends with them and they often invited him for supper. Del taught at Robert Pete Williams High School, named after the self-styled African-American revolutionary who’d written the book Negroes with Guns, and who’d fled the country after committing a crime, then lived most of his life in Red China, as it was then commonly called. The school had originally been named Dogger Bank High, after the site of a naval battle that had been fought in the North Sea during World War I. Times were changing, Del Parker told Pace, even in a state as backward as North Carolina.

Both Del and Bitsy were thirty-two years old. Being childless, and with Del having summers off, they had travelled extensively throughout the world and shared stories of their adventures with Pace, who in turn told them about his own colorful life. Pace felt fortunate to have them as tenants and neighbors.

One cloudy Wednesday afternoon, just as Pace was finishing up his writing for the day, Bitsy knocked on his screen door, which he opened as soon as he saw her.

“I hope I’m not disturbing you,” she said.

“No,” said Pace, “I’m about done for now. I’m just comin’ to the part where Lula tells her mama, Marietta, that she’s pregnant with me.”

Bitsy laughed, and said, “Well, then, this might could be the right time to talk to you about what I’ve come to talk to you about.”

“Come in. You thirsty?”

Bitsy shook her head no, and they both sat down on a couch in the cottage’s front room. Bitsy was a petite, pretty blonde with green eyes. She did a considerable amount of physical work as a landscaper, so she was strong and sinewy with a good figure which Pace could not help but admire. He liked to look at her.

“You may have wondered,” she said, “why Del and I have never had children.”

“I just figured you hadn’t gotten around to it yet.”

“Not exactly. The thing is, Del can’t shoot nothin’ but blanks. I’m okay, though. We had tests to find out why I’ve never gotten pregnant.”

“Rhoda and I never had kids. Now that I’m older, I wish we had. Anyway, you can adopt.”

Bitsy shook her head and her honey blonde hair covered the left half of her face. She stared down at the floor for a minute, then looked back at Pace. There was an expression on her face that he had never seen before, a serious, dark look that made him uncomfortable.

“I got somethin’ tough to ask you, Pace, and if you think it’s crazy, just say so, all right?”

“Go on and ask.”

“Would you consider makin’ love with me and see if I could get pregnant? I mean, you’re Del’s and my good friend and landlord, and livin’ here together like we do, it just made sense to me when I thought of it.”

Pace just stared at Bitsy for a while before he spoke.

“Is this something you and Del decided? I mean, to suggest the idea to me?”

“Not really,” said Bitsy.

“This is only your idea, then,” Pace said.

Bitsy nodded. “Do you think I’m crazy, Pace? Does the idea appeal to you at all? Do you think I’m attractive?”

“Of course I think you’re attractive, Bitsy, but that’s hardly the point. If you and Del decided that you wanted my sperm to use in vitro, I guess I’d go along with you, but . . .”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want some test tube full of jizz injected into me. I need to have it done right, the way nature intended.”

“Bitsy, I don’t know. Anyhow, you’d have to discuss this with Del. He’s your husband.”

Bitsy slid over next to Pace and kissed him. She put her hand between his legs and fondled him. Pace kissed her back.

She took her mouth off of his and whispered, “It’ll work, Pace, I just know it. This is your chance, too. Maybe the last one.”

Bitsy stood, took Pace by his left hand with her right, pulled him up, and led him into the bedroom.