But Fe was not over thirty and had had a clean bill of health at her pre-wedding gyn exam. She hadn’t had no babies yet but she and Casey were looking forward to a big familia. “Let’s have all boys,” she said, thinking about the lot of girls her mother had had. Then remembering Casey’s bleating and his shepherd’s blood, she said, “Well, let’s just see. Maybe we’ll get girls. That would be okay, too. Hopefully, they’ll take after me.” And Casey said nothing, as usual, but smiled, because to him, like I said, his Fe was perfect.

Meanwhile, Fe was intent on moving up quick at Acme International, therefore from the start she took on every gritty job available, just to prove to the company what a good worker she was. But also, as her friend had told her, people were in fact given raises on the sheer basis of “utilization and efficiency.” Yep, that’s exactly how a supervisor put it to her one day, probably quoting out of the employee’s manual or something, “utilization and efficiency.”

And even though it really wasn’t too clear what “utilization” meant, we know that nobody could be quite as efficient about anything as Fe was. Like even when she lost her mind because Tom had broken up with her, she did it without a second’s hesitation; and just as quickly snapped out of it, even if it was a year later.

So in a few months Fe was promoted from assembler to materials dispatcher trainee. Some of the women who worked there did not have a high school diploma like Fe, several spoke Spanish, Tewa, Tiwa, or some other pueblo dialect as a first language, and none (except her friend) had had the prestigious experience of having been a white-collar worker before. Also, most had children already and the children wore them out before and after work so that they did not have their all to give to Acme International, as did Fe.

Casey usually drove her to work and picked her up and it was Casey who liked to cook dinner most evenings. Casey was in love. And just like newlyweds, every evening was a special night for them anyway, so sometimes it was pizza on a weeknight, sometimes they went to the Chinese carryout on Central Avenue on the way home. And it was going to be like that until Fe started getting pregnant as far as either of them were concerned, so Fe made the most of it and put her full concentration on the job.

In fact, before she got promoted to materials dispatcher trainee she was pregnant, but she did not know it until she miscarried. After she came back to work, having taken a few days off to recover, she told some of the women whom she usually had lunch with. “Well, at least you can still have babies,” one woman told her. “I had a hysterectomy last summer.” Before Fe could say nothing, although she didn’t know what to say to that anyway, two of the other women said the same thing.