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understand it, you did it to me , not the other way around. And don't try to blame it on parthenogenesis either.”
        “Partho-what?”
        “Parthenogenesis. That's when the female gets pregnant without having to find a male to fertilize her egg.”
        With a note of hope in his voice, he said, “Hey, is that possible?”
        God, he was a dolt. Why had she ever given herself to him? They had nothing in common. She was artistically inclined, she played the flute, and she liked to draw. Jerry had no interest whatsoever in the arts. He liked cars and sports, and Amy had little tolerance for conversation about either of those things. She liked to read, he thought books were for girls and sissies. Except for sex, cars, and football, no subject could engage him for more than ten minutes; he had a child's attention span. So why had she given herself to him? Why?
         “ Oh, sure,” she said in answer to his question. “Sure, parthenogenesis might be possible-if I was an insect. Or a certain kind of plant.”
        “You're sure it can't happen to people?” he asked.
        “God, Jerry, you can't really be that dumb. You're putting me on, aren't you?”
        “Hell, I never listened to old Amoeba Face Peterson in biology,” Jerry said defensively. “That stuff always bored my ass off.” He was silent for a minute, and she waited, and finally he said, so what are you going to do?”
        “I'll get an abortion,” she said.
        He brightened up immediately. “Yeah. Yeah, that's the best thing. It really is. That's smart. That's the best thing for both of us. I mean, you know, we're too young to be tied down with a kid.”
        “We'll cut school on Monday,” she said. “We'll find a doctor and set up an appointment to have it done.”
        “You mean you want me to go with you?”
        “Of course.” Why?
        “For Christ's sake, Jerry, I don't want to go by myself. I don't want to face it alone.”
        “There's nothing to be scared of,” he said. “You can handle it. I know you can.”
        She glared at him. “You're coming with me. You've got to. For one thing, you'll have to approve the doctor's fee. Maybe we'll have to shop around for the best price.” She shuddered. “That's up to you.”
        “You mean… you want me to pay for the abortion?”
        “I think that's fair.”
        “How much?”
        “I don't know. Probably a few hundred.”
        “I can't,” he said.
        “What?”
        “I can't pay for it, Amy.”
        “You've had a real good job the past two summers. And you work weekends most of the year.”
        “Stocking shelves in a grocery store doesn't pay a whole hell of a lot, you know.”
        “Union wages.”
        “Yeah, but-”
        You bought this car and fixed it up. You have a pretty good savings account. You've bragged about that often enough.”
        He squirmed. “I can't touch my savings.”
        “Why not?”
        “I need every dollar for California.”
        “I don't understand.”
        “Two weeks from now, after graduation, I'm going to blow this stupid town. There ain't any future here for me. Royal City. What a laugh. There's nothing royal about this dump. And it sure ain't a city. It's just fifteen thousand people living in a dump in the middle of Ohio, which is just another, bigger dump.”
        “I like it.”
        “I don't.”
        “But what do you expect to find in California?”
        “Are you kidding? There's a million opportunities out there for a guy with a lot on the ball.”
        “But what do you expect to find there for you?” she asked.
        He didn't understand what she meant, he didn't feel her slip the needle in. “I just told you, baby. In California, there's more opportunities than anywhere else in the world. Los Angeles. That's the place for me. Hell, yes. A guy like me can go real far in a city like L.A. ”
        “Doing