He sat on the bed next to her. He put his arm around her shoulders, but he felt like a daddy, so he pulled it away and rested his hand on her warm and narrow knee. That seemed to bring more crying out of her. Leo looked at the doorway and saw Jim step into it in his pajama bottoms. Jim’s hair was already sticking up in the back and he was squinting from the lamplight or else from trying to make sense of what was happening there in front of him. He scratched his leg, his eyes on Leo, then he turned back into the darkness of the hall.

Allie hadn’t even looked up. “You have no idea, Leo.” She took a half-breath, then another. “It’s not fair.”

Leo got up and closed the door. He took a work bandanna from his bureau drawer and handed it to her. “He’s going to be okay, Allie. I saw him this afternoon, he looks real good.”

Allie’s eyes were already swollen underneath. She wiped off her cheeks and blew her nose. She let out a long breath and looked up at him. “I’m pregnant.”

“You are?”

She nodded, keeping her eyes right on his. “Yes.”

Leo sat down, then stood up again. He walked to the bureau, leaned on it with one elbow, looked at her, then walked over to the window and sat on the sill.

“I’m getting it fixed tomorrow. I just wanted to tell you.”

“Fixed?” Leo thought of dogs, bitches in heat getting spayed. Dirt tools. No more puppies. Now Allie. Now this. “Did you take a test?”

Allie nodded. Her face was tilted down, but her eyes were looking up at him. She sniffled and Leo stood again. “How long have you known this?”

Allie wiped her nose.

“Huh?”

“A while.”

The Mystery Girl.

“It felt awful not telling you, Leo. I mean, you’re so material to the situation. I just couldn’t do it, for some reason.”

“What do you mean ‘fixed’? You mean kill it? I thought that was illegal.”

Allie rested her elbows on her knees. She looked straight ahead at the drawers of the bureau. “It is. My mother’s doing it all.”

“Your mother? With what?”

“No, she’s taking me to a doctor in Boston. He did one for my aunt.”

“Does she know I don’t know?”

Allie nodded.

“Chick knows?”

“No, and you can’t tell him, Leo.”

Leo walked over, squatted on the floor, and gripped both her calves. “I got a question for you. Do I get a vote here?”

“No!” Allie pulled on his wrists but he squeezed more.

“Say something else.”