My maternal birth control lecture took place in a blue Oldsmobile in front of Momma’s brown mansion on a brilliant sunny afternoon. Momma and Aunt Celeste were in the front seat of the car. I was in the backseat. Across the street Aunt Celeste’s daughters were playing badminton on her lawn. Even from the car I could see how perfectly their shoes were polished. Aunt Celeste was a perfectionist who could even put my mother to shame. The three of us had been to the beauty parlor to have our hair turned into football helmets. Aunt Celeste’s dark hair was sprayed and shining. Mother’s platinum blonde hair was backcombed into a beehive. My red hair was cut into a bob that made me look as if I were twelve years old. Our nails were freshly polished. Momma’s were Windsor Pink. Aunt Celeste’s were Pink On Pink and mine were Fire Engine Red to match my lipstick. I had been married for ten weeks. I was not pregnant yet. This was some sort of miracle of which I was not aware. I was still laboring under the misapprehension that I couldn’t get pregnant unless I wanted to.

“Momma,” I said, as she turned off the ignition key and rolled down the car windows to let the air conditioning out and the heat of August in. “Momma, I need to do something about birth control. What should I do?”

“I told you to get some rubbers and some Lysol suppositories,” she said. “I told you in Atlanta what to do.”

“You need to use the suppositories,” Aunt Celeste added. “The rubbers don’t do any good without them.”

“We don’t like to use rubbers,” I said. I sat back against the backseat, watching Momma’s face contort into a terrorized mask. It was torture to make her realize I was doing it in my bedroom with my husband.

“I’ll talk about it to you later,” she said. “Celeste, let us help you carry in those groceries. Here, I’ll open the trunk.” She jumped out and hurried around to the back of the car to open the trunk. “You have to use the rubbers,” Aunt Celeste said. “Whether he likes it or not. There isn’t any other way, Rhoda. It has to be that way.”