“Adequate preparation is the key to civilization,” Doctor said. “Crops and fields could be destroyed in the battle, then the food shortages come. Anarchy. It doesn’t take long for people to turn into animals. Nine days of hunger could turn any good woman into a prostitute. Gold and sugar will be the only good currency. I’ve got both.
“Cough again,” Doctor said.
He gently squeezed along the tops of Kathy’s arms and down to her wrists. He pinched her fingertips, then her knuckles. Skipped back up her arms to her elbows and shoulders, tapped them there. “Roll to your right side.”
Her thick auburn hair fell beside her and blanketed his hand, its reddish tones shimmered there. Even the doctor paused to notice. As he pulled his hand away, he rubbed her strands together as if sifting through grains of sand. Kathy caught him doing it before he moved on. “Please, roll flat on your back,” he said.
Even though Kathy’s not old, the loose skin under her chin sagged back as she laid on her back, leaving only a crease between her chin and neck and together it looked like a tree trunk. Strange-looking to me but not to Doctor. He was looking at her cleavage in the low cut of her sundress.
“Pretty dress,” he said.
Richard said, “Folks around here don’t usually wear clothes like that. All the fashion in Mississippi.”
“Doctor?” Kathy said, pinching her cleavage to a bulge. “You reckon these are enough to please him? My baby, I mean. They’re like blueberries, don’t you think? Small and. . a mouthful maybe. A teensy bit to suck on. What do you think, Doctor?”
He glanced past her chest like he hadn’t already saw, and he stuttered, “They — they’re plenty full enough. . can please any baby.”
“They’re pleasing?” Kathy said.
“Sufficient. . I meant. God created all mothers to feed their children. I don’t think you’ll have a worry.”
He felt over her swollen belly from the outside of her dress, and just as he did, Kathy lifted her dress above her baby. “Will this be easier, Doctor?”
The doctor froze and stared at her nakedness.
“Katherine!” Richard said, and came near the bed. But when he saw the fullness of her veiny, white belly, he was struck and gagged and turned his head. “Put your dress down!”
“If he’s gonna be my doctor,” Kathy said, “he can’t be afraid to touch me. You’re not afraid to touch me, are you, Doctor?”
“Of course not,” Doctor said, taking in a swallow of air. “Just like any other animal.”
She reached up for Doctor’s hand and pressed it into her naked belly. From over his shoulder, Richard said, “Don’t go telling the doctor how to do his job, Katherine. I’m sorry, Doctor. They do things differently in Mississippi.”
The doctor glided his fingers over her belly. “Perfect condition,” he said. “I’ve seen many pregnancies, but you. . no stretch lines, no discoloration, no absurd weight gain. Beautiful.” He palmed her belly, held it with both hands. “I’ll tell you what, Miss Katherine. Your husband is a lucky man.”
“He’s dead,” she said.
Richard coughed.
“The letter came yesterday.”
“Why, Katherine, you didn’t tell me Billy died,” Richard said.
“I asked Annie to give me a day or two before I let the family know.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Doctor said. His words triggered a flow of imagined grief in Katherine and she cried. . no, wailed. . like she’d lost the baby. Lost many babies.
“He was a good man, my Billy!” she said. “A soldier. Now, my baby’ll be a bastard.” She grabbed hold of Doctor and hung on ’im, cried beyond help. “No man’ll have me now.”
Doctor held Kathy the way doctors don’t. “It’s all right,” he said. “You don’t want to upset the baby.”
“Yeah, you don’t want to upset the baby,” Richard said, mad. It didn’t stop her.
“A pretty girl like you?” Doctor said. “You’ll find a husband in no time at all.”
“But so many good men are dead,” she cried. “Like my Billy. What if they’re all dead? But not you, Doctor. You’re so kind. If only I could find a new husband like you. Then my baby and I would truly be blessed by God.”
“Doctor?” Richard said. “Why don’t you come back next week. Give Katherine some time to recover. . from this loss.”
“I reckon I should come back tomorrow,” Doctor said and he took Kathy’s hand, already a fool. “This baby is due any day now. I can keep a close eye on her and the baby.”
“This is all such bitter news for us all,” Richard said, somberly. “I assure you, Doctor. Annie and I will take good care of her. We’ll call on you if we need you before then.”
“As her doctor, I insist that I. .”
“Doctor,” Richard said, final. “That’ll be all.”
Doctor hung in the space for a moment and held tight Kathy’s hand. “Thank you, Doctor,” Kathy said, pitiful, before Doctor gathered his tools and went.
When the door closed, Richard rushed over to Kathy and said in an angry whisper, “What the hell was that?”
“My baby will have a father,” she said.
“What do you want me to do, Katherine? Divorce her? I will. You just say it and I’ll have her out of this house that minute. It can be just you and me and our baby — the nest you want.”
“That’s not what I want,” Kathy said.
“Then tell me what it is so I can give it to you.”
“Why should I have to tell you? Why do I always have to tell you everything?”
“Not everything. Just tell me you love me,” Richard said. “Tell me you only want me. That you want to marry me so I’m sure.”
“You already know I do.”
“Then how am I going to marry you if you don’t want me to divorce her?”
“I didn’t say that.”
He threw his hands up. “I swear I don’t understand you sometimes.”
“She ain’t all bad like you made her out to be, Richard. She has this whole place to run. If I’m fair, I’m the one that took her husband, has his bastard baby, and she’s been nothing but kind to me.”
“You’re simple, Katherine. You think everybody’s got the best intentions, but she’s a cold bitch.”
“Maybe so. But I don’t want to take this house from her. Live in this town. I don’t want people pointing and accusing me of being the whore that stole you from your wife. Divorced or not, I can’t get my good ending that way. Not here.” Her real tears come. “I want to go somewhere where we can build our own memories. Raise our family together.” She took his hand and laid it flat on her belly. He hesitated, almost pulled away, before he gave into it, ran his hand smoothly and gently over her.
“We’ll need money,” Richard said. “I’ll sell everything. Anything that ain’t tacked down. I promise I’ll give you the life you’ve always wanted. A place for our family.”
“When?” Kathy said. “And don’t tell me after the war ends, ’cause that’s never gonna end.”
He swiped his hands down his clothes and hobbled to the door with purpose.
“Where you going?” Kathy said.
Without a word, he ambled down the stairs and to the outside porch where Annie was sitting alone. The last guest had gone. He stood over her and said those final words: “I’m divorcing you!”
29 / JANUARY 1865, Tallassee, Alabama
GENERAL SHERMAN AND his Union Army — Lincoln’s army — left behind a three-hundred-mile path of destruction, sixty miles wide, all the way from Atlanta to Savannah, the reports say. So Lincoln offered him Savannah as a Christmas present. Our freedom’s coming. But right now, people are hungry, searching for work and food. Whites and runaways. And there’s none — out of spite or shortage — and the reasons don’t matter when you’re desperate.