thus. My daddy had been perfectly masculine, and look how I turned out. By the time Fay's stomach was showing I could hardly wait.

“But... one day that all came to an end. Fay was going to see her doctor. I heard it first on the car radio on the way home from work. 'Pregnant woman killed in hit and run accident. Police are holding a shipyard worker who allegedly struck a young woman as she stepped from her car on Brewster Street. The woman was pronounced dead on arrival at Riverside Hospital. The driver of the hit and run car, apprehended three blocks from the scene, was intoxicated at the time of arrest, according to police detective B. M. Barker, Jr. Charges of hit and run, and drunken driving have been filed. Names are being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.' I didn't really need to be notified. But there was still hope it was someone else.

"Fay would be home by the time I got there if she were coming. When I rounded the corner to our road I breathed a sigh of relief. Fay's '63 Ford was sitting in our drive.

"Only after I had pulled all the way up behind the car did I realize that it wasn't her's. It was an unmarked police car. It took everything I had to get out of that car, but I got out. A policeman got out of the other car and walked over to me with a reassuring smile on his face. He looked so kind, smiling like he was, that I thought he couldn't be there to give me bad news.'

""

“Hello,” he said, “I'm Detective Sergeant B. M. Barker.” I passed out in his arms.

The tears that had been welling up in her eyes poured out. I could feel all the pain that was there three years ago flashing back through her mind. Then she slumped against my shoulder. My first reaction was to push away, but than I saw she had fainted. As long as nobody saw it, including her, I didn't mind having her, a boy, on my shoulder. Funny how I can't seem to call her a boy.

Before I could really calm my own nerves and collect my thoughts, she began to come to. Her body was shivering, and she was crying softly. But almost immediately, she had regained

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