11

Of course Bitsy had told Del that the child she was expecting was his. As far as she could tell, Bitsy said, her husband had no inkling of her affair with Pace. Bitsy then kissed Pace on the lips and said that she had to run to keep an appointment with a client. They’d catch up on his news later.

Pace lay on his bed still puzzling over how he had gotten there, seemingly safe and sound. Through his bedroom window he could see the Pathfinder parked outside. Had he really momentarily experienced being in the Up-Down, Pace wondered, or had that been an illusion? Perhaps that’s what the Up-Down is, he reasoned, an illusion. But how did that explain his blanking out on the trip back from Philadelphia? He was certain he had gone there, that Siempre Desalmado was a real person with whom he’d spent time. After all, Bitsy had welcomed him home. Pace noticed that he was fully dressed, but was he in his right mind?