Fever
She was lying fully-clothed across the bed with James
her feet touching the floor when his father came in. Well then, he said and turned the light off. A small daylight edge-lit the rip in the brocade curtains so it looked like a vulva. She was ravenous for pizza, wanted to stuff herself with it, and had to force herself away from thoughts of food. James had made a girl pregnant but she was gone now. She ought to be grateful but that emotion was a startled coney rabbit heading for cover. Her period was late and while she had not paid much attention to that kind of thing in the past, everything was turning out to be either late or early. James moaned in his sleep and flailed as if he had fallen in a ditch. She looked at him and saw his father, already, men who were likely not to be there when you needed them.