Everybody knew how badly I wanted to have a child. Especially Yvonne. Her three young children by three different men lived with her overly religious aunt and uncle in Mobile. They didn’t like Yvonne’s lifestyle, and weren’t going to let the children know she was their real mother until they reached adulthood. Yvonne didn’t like that arrangement, but she’d gone along with it. She owed the aunt and uncle a lot because they had raised her when her parents lost their lives in a tractor accident when she was a little girl. She loved her kids and knew what a blessing it was to be a mother, so she was sympathetic to my situation.

Back in August, my period hadn’t come the week it was due, and I’d gotten real hopeful. When it came the following week, Yvonne was just as disappointed as I was that I was not pregnant. I cringed every time I recalled the conversation we’d had that afternoon on my back porch. I had been cleaning chitlins when she showed up and plopped down on the bannister. “If you really want to get pregnant, try standing on your head for ten minutes after you and Odell make love.”

“I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.” I’d laughed. “How could standing on my head help me become pregnant?”

“With you having such a long body, by the time Odell’s jism reaches your baby-making equipment, it’s too weak to do the job. Standing upside down right after y’all finish making love—not five or ten minutes later—would send it in the right direction while it’s still fresh and potent.”

“Pffft. If it was that easy to become pregnant, there wouldn’t be a childless woman in this state. Who told you that? And how come you’re just now telling me?”

“I just heard it myself last week from June Ann Lawson, a lady from my old neighborhood. She and her husband came to the house to celebrate her first pregnancy. She is six months along and they been celebrating ever since they found out. They finally got around to visiting me and Milton to let us know. They been married longer than you and Odell and been trying the whole time. She didn’t tell me who, but somebody told her standing on her head would help her get pregnant. So, I’m telling you. She only had to do it six or seven times.”

“And you believed her?”

Yvonne hunched her shoulders. “Why wouldn’t I? June Ann is definitely pregnant and proved it to me by letting me feel her baby kicking around in her belly.”