Ruth was relaxing on the back porch with Fifty-Three, watching a fleet of clouds drifting across the blue sky. Her latest book was with her editor. Finally, she had managed to muster enough discipline to bring Nurse Gordiano and Dr. Weaver together without irony. She was, once more, the facile choreographer of all those passionate kisses, lips meeting lips in space. And what are lips, she thought, but a slightly more elaborate sphincter? One butt lies nestled in our pants like an underdeveloped Siamese half, connected to our face butt by an umbilical threaded through our lurid guts. As a wildly ambitious young woman, could she ever have conceived that she would spend her life imagining all the ways these soft flanged openings to the grotesque internality of a man and a woman come together? The kiss: faces reverting again to asses, going blind and deaf. Babies! Babies! Let’s make more babies! More topsy-turvy Siamese twins, more asses searching for asses through the damp gloom of our stupidity and cupidity. Christ! Her heartbeat throbbed spongily in her head. What was wrong with her?

The back door opened and Raj emerged, followed by Nora. The sight of her hand in his sent a fissure of hurt and indignation right through her.

“Hi, Miss Winters.” Nora glanced urgingly at Raj, who was scratching his head and looking thoughtful.

Ruth felt the strain of her own smile.

“Ruth,” Raj said, as if it were an apology, “Nor and I are getting engaged.”

“Getting married,” Nora corrected, keeping her eyes on Raj.

“Right,” he said.

“Oh,” Ruth said.

None of them spoke for a moment. Ruth knew they wanted a little more from her than “Oh,” and when she had sufficiently gathered herself, said, “You’re not getting married yet, are you? I mean, you’re both very young.”

“Pretty soon,” Nora said. “I thought it might even be nice to do it at the same time as Annie and Lew.”

“But that’s less than a week away.” Ruth felt panicked.

Nora stared at Raj. Clearly he was meant to be helping her with this or at least responding to what she said with enthusiastic agreement. Instead, squatting down, he began to toy with Fifty-Three’s ears.

“But Raj is heading to college,” Ruth said.

“I’m going with him.”

“But how’s he going to study?”

“I’ll be studying too.”

“And you’re going to live on his scholarship?”

“I’ll get a job if I have to. I’ll support him.”

“You’re not pregnant, are you?”

“Miss Winters, of course not.”

“Then don’t get married. Wait.”

“Raj!” Nora called in despair.

Raj stood up. “It’ll be all right,” he murmured. “We’ll be all right.”

“Raj, what about your studies?” Ruth said. “You’re barely out of high school. Why are you getting married?”

Nora looked as if she were about to cry and Raj put his arm around her. Ruth knew she should accept this and embrace Nora, but it would have been easier for her at this moment to disembowel herself. It was all she could do not to fling this girl off the porch.