“It’s my property. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to do what I want with it?” Nick Cox, number twenty-two, argued.

How had he gotten a number? He’d arrived after people started testifying, long after all of the numbers had been handed out—and yet, there he was up at the lectern.

“A man’s home is his castle,” Nick said.

“Get off it, Cox!” Suzanne cried.

“You’re out of order,” the mayor said.

“A man’s and a woman’s home,” Nick Cox said, winking. At whom? Suzanne scanned the crowd. Allison was smiling back at him. Beaming. Was she beaming? Not possible. It must be a smile of disdain, but it bore a close kinship to a beam.

“A family’s home. It’s a matter of personal freedom. That’s my point,” Nick went on.

Freedom. There was something she lacked. Was anyone free, she thought, looking around the room at her neighbors. Edna Stant, with her short right leg—was she free? That fellow Jack, with his blind mother? Ted Miller with his disabled twin? It was an interesting question.

She put her hands on her belly, wishing she could simply will the baby to stay put till she reached term. She felt like howling. There were some things you couldn’t simply will to be. Most things, come to think of it.

The baby fluttered within her. Suzanne imagined her bouncing and floating like a baby mermaid, a gummy smile on her perfect face. Adam, her merman brother, was at home, swimming in his sleep. Suzanne had the urge to dash home and slip into his little racing-car bed with him. She imagined closing her eyes and sleeping side by side with her two babies. In and out, they would all breathe together, in and out.

AS TED MADE HIS WAY UP THE CENTER AISLE TO THE STAGE, COX MADE his way back down. They bumped shoulders as they passed each other. Well, Cox bumped into him. Was it an accidental bump . . . or a shove? A shoulder shove? His shoulders were big, but were they so big that they had to slam into Ted? Ted nearly pushed back, but then thought about how it would look—likely no one had registered Cox’s shoulder shove, but everyone would see Ted stick out his hand and push. Shaken, but dignity intact, Ted reached the lectern in time to see Cox leave through the back door, letting in a gasp of cold air. How had the bastard gotten to testify before him? Had he bought the slot?