and he had to travel only two streets to get there. It was an easy
place to find, high up on the hill. Joey had planned to tell his
mother that he was going to the library for the day, which he
occasionally did, but then he was going to take his bicycle out to the
fairgrounds and have himself a real ball all morning and afternoon,
getting home just in time for supper, without Mama being any the
wiser.
He especially hated to miss the fair this year because it was going to
be bigger and better than ever. The midway would be run by a different
outfit from the one that had always come to Royal City in the past.
This carnival was supposed to be humongous, the second largest in the
world, two or three times bigger than the rinky-dink carnival that
usually came to town.
There would be a lot more rides than there had been in other years, a
great many new things to see and do.
But he wouldn’t see or do any of them if he was two hundred miles away,
starting a new life in a strange city.
For almost a full minute Joey lay in the darkness, feeling sorry for
himself-and then he sat bolt upright, electrified by a brilliant
idea.
He could leave home and still get to see the fair. He could do both.
It was simple. Perfect.
He would run away with the carniual!
WEDNESDAY MORNING THE test results came back from the lab. Amy was
officially pregnant.
Wednesday afternoon she and Mama went to the bank and withdrew enough
money from Amy’s savings account to pay cash for the abortion.
Saturday morning they told Amy’s father that they were going shopping
for a few hours. Instead, they went to Dr. Spangler’s clinic.
At the admissions desk Amy felt like a criminal. Neither Dr. Spangler
nor his associates, Dr. West and Dr. Lewis, nor any of his nurses was
Catholic, they performed abortions every week, month in and month out,
without attaching any moral judgment to the act. Nevertheless, after
so many years of intense religious instruction, Amy felt almost as if
she were about to become an accomplice to a murder, and she knew that
at least a residue of guilt would remain with her for a long, long
time, staining any happiness she I might be able to achieve.
E She still found it difficult to believe that Mama had agreed to let
her abort the fetus. She wondered about the fear in her mother’s
eyes.
The operation was done on an outpatient basis, i and a nurse took Amy
to a room where she could undress and put her clothes in a locker.
Mama remained in the waiting room.
i In the prep room, after a nurse had taken a – blood sample, Dr.
Spangler came in to chat with s her for a moment. He tried to put her
at ease. He was a jovial, chubby man with a bald head and . bushy
gray sideburns.
‘ “You’re not very far gone,” he said. “This will be a simple
procedure. No serious chance of complications. Don’t worry about it,
okay?
It’ll be over before you realize it’s begun.”
– In the small operating room, Amy was given a mild anesthetic. She
began to drift out of her body as if she were a balloon rising into a
high, blue sky.
In the distance, beyond a haze of light and a curtain of whispering
air, Amy heard a nurse talking softly. The woman said, “She’s a very
pretty girl, isn’t she?” aYes, very pretty,” Dr. Spangler said, his
voice fading syllable by syllable, almost inaudible. “And a nice girl,
too. I’ve been her doctor since she was a little tot. She’s always
been so polite, selfeffacing . . .”
Soaring up and away from them, Amy tried to tell the doctor that he was
wrong.
She wasn’t a nice girl. She was a very bad girl. He should ask
Mama.
Mama would tell him the truth. Amy Harper was a bad girl, evil inside,
loose, wild, untrustworthy, just no damned good. She tried to tell Dr.