was in the early stages of labor.” The longer he listened to Fogarty,
the more it seemed to Bobby that the air in the library was foul and
growing fouler, thick with a humidity as sour as sweat.
“Claiming that he wanted to protect Cynthia as much as possible from
public scorn, Yarnell offered me a pretty fat fee if I’d keep her out of
the hospital and deliver the baby right in my office, which was a little
risky, in case there were complications. But I needed the money, and if
anything went really wrong, there were ways to cover it. I had this
nurse at the time who could assist me-Norma, she was pretty flexible
about things.” great, Bobby thought. The sociopathic physician had
Just found himself a sociopathic nurse, a couple who would be right in
the social swing of things among the medical staff at Dachau or
Auschwitz.
Julie put a hand on Bobby’s knee and squeezed, as if the contact
reassured her that she was not listening to a mad doctor in a dream.
“What came out of that girl’
“You should have seen it, Fogarty said.
“A freak it was, just as you’d expect.”
“Wait a minute,” Julie said.
“I thought you said the baby was Roselle. Frank’s mother.”
“It was,” Fogarty said.
“And she was such a spectacular little freak that she’d have been worth
a fortune to any carnival or sideshow willing to risk the anger of the
law to exhibit he He paused, enjoying their anticipation.
“She was an hermap rodite.
For a moment the word meant nothing to Bobby, and then he said,
“You don’t mean-she had both sexes, male and male?”
“Oh, but that’s exactly what I mean.” Fogarty bounced frorp his chair
and began to pace, suddenly energized by conversation.
“Hermaphroditism is an extremely rare birth defect in humans, it’s an
amazing thing to have the opportunity to deliver one. You have traverse
hermaphroditism, wherehave the external organs of one sex and the
internal ofother, lateral hermaphroditism… several other types. But
one thing is… Roselle was the rarest of all, she possessed the
complete internal and external organs of both sexes.” He pluck a thick
medical reference book from one of the shelves a handed it to Julie.
“Check page one forty-six for photos ofkind of thing I’m talking about.”
Julie handed the volume to Bobby so fast it seemed as ifthought it was a
snake.
Bobby, in turn, put it beside himself on the sofa, unopen The last thing
he needed, with his imagination, was the ass tance of clinical
photographs.
His hands and feet had gone cold, as though the blood had rushed from
his extremities to his head, to nourish his bra which was spinning
furiously. He wished that he couldthinking about what Fogarty was
telling them. It was gro But the worst thing about it was, judging by
the physicia strange smile, Bobby sensed that what they had heard thus
was all just the bread on this horror sandwich; the meatyet to come.
Pacing again, Fogarty said,
“Her vagina was about who you’d expect, the male equipment somewhat
displaced. Urination was through the male part, but the female appeared
rep ductively complete.”
“I think we get the picture,” Julie said.
“We don’t need the technical details.” Fogarty came to them, stood
looking down at them, and eyes were as bright and lively as if he were
recounting a chaing medical anecdote that had bewitched legions of
delight companions at dinner parties over the years.
“No, no,z x must understand what she was, if you’re going to understand
all that happened next.” THOUGH HER OWN Mlnd was split into many
parts-sharing the bodies of Verbina, all the cats, and the owl on
Fogarty’s porch roof-Violet was most acutely aware of what she was
receiving through the senses of Darkle, as he perched upon the
windowsill outside the study. With the cat’s sharp hearing, Violet
missed not a word of the conversation, in spite of the intervening pane
of glass. She was enthralled.
She seldom paused to think about her mother, although Roselle was still
in this old house in so many ways. She seldom thought about any human