Carlotta lifted her head and smiled at me over Kate’s bony back. “It’s really good once you get used to it.”

The sound of the milk pinging against metal changed to a soft splash as the bucket filled. Carlotta moved around the goat, squatted with her knees far apart and her belly hanging between them. She reached under the goat and gave a little twist of her wrist. Kate bleated loudly, her mouth opened a little around the cud, and green saliva flowed out onto my hands. I almost dropped the rope. Kate’s body buckled and doubled. Carlotta held one kicking leg with one hand and pulled quickly at the teat with the other.

“I was wondering when the goat got relieved.”

My head jerked up involuntarily at the new voice. Laura stood naked in the doorway. Her breasts were all right, but her legs were heavy. No ankles.

“What are you all got up for?” Carlotta asked.

I stepped back holding Kate’s rope. Angelina lolloped against the milk can and bluish-white fluid sloshed up over the lip and down Carlotta’s leg.

Laura raised her eyebrows mildly. “We’re all going skinny-dipping in the river. Aram says you’re to come.”

She smiled pityingly and receded into the gloom of the house. Her ass was apple-shaped. I have always preferred pear-shaped asses, myself.

Carlotta was suddenly pale and tired-looking. The flesh around her eyes was dark purple. She folded to the ground, her whole body clenched around the great ball of her belly.

“Hey.”

I touched her head. It was hot from the sun. Kate was following me too closely. I threw down the rope and crouched, tried to embrace Carlotta. She was too big to take in my arms. Instead I sat close and slung an arm over her shoulders, tried to lift her face out of her arms.

“Hey. Hey.”

Her body spasmed rhythmically and her heels jittered against the hard earth. It occurred to me that I could leave, go down the road to the highway. Put out my thumb and go to the beach. I wasn’t of any use there. I was good only as an eye and an ear and a mouth, emptying out beneath a skylight.

“Hey.”

That time I said it right, soft but rough. She continued to shake but I pulled her head up out from her arms. Her eyes were open wide and dry, but she breathed harshly, in and out. I pulled her onto the ground, on her back. She didn’t try to stop me, didn’t do anything. Her belly looked like a Halloween joke. I held her hand. It lay still in my paw. Her breathing quieted, slowed. She blinked slowly up at the sky. I realized I’d lost track of Angelina. Kate was off browsing a spilled bag of garbage.

“What’s that river called?” she asked.