Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction November 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
unbegotten child
By WINSTON MARKS
Illustrated by VIDMER
If this was true, there ought to be another edition of WhatEvery Young Girl Should Know!
hat," she demanded, sitting bolt upright in the hospital bed, "hashappened to the medical world? In Italy, they tell me I have anabdominal tumor. In Paris, it's cancer. And now you fat-heads aretrying to tell me I'm pregnant!"
I stuffed my stethoscope into my jacket pocket and tried to pat herhand. "Take it easy, Mrs. Caffey—"
"It's Miss Caffey, damn you," she said snatching her hand away, "andbetter I should have gone to an astrologer!"
"See here, now," I said, letting a stern note enter my voice. "Youcame here requesting a verification of the malignancy of thisgrowth. Our discovery of a six month foetus is a fact, not anaccusation."
"Look, Buster, I'm a thirty-six-year-old spinster. Like the joke goes,I haven't been married or anything. Also, I knew about the birds andthe bees before you were emptying bedpans. Now will you get off thissubject of babies and find out whether it's safe for me to start anycontinued stories?"
uch protestations from unmarried mothers were not uncommon, but SaraCaffey's cold convictions were unshakable. She sank back into herseven satin pillows and sighed mightily. Her wide-spaced, intelligenteyes glared at me from a handsome, if somewhat overly strong, face.Creamy white shoulders swept gracefully into gradually darkening neckskin and frankly tanned cheeks and broad forehead. Her straight,slender nose was sunburned.
As resident physician for over fifteen years, I had learned patiencein these matters. But the thought that this lovely creature expectedme to believe that she was an unfulfilled old maid got under my skin,particularly under the circumstances.
"Miss Caffey, I am a physician, not a philosopher. Just the same,permit me to congratulate you on your virginity."
"Thanks," she said, in a voice not untinged with pride.
"However," I went on, "in spite of certain contra-indications andirregularities of symptoms such as the absence of morning sickness andthe like, I would like to enlist your cooperation in deliveringyourself of an infant within the next three months."
"Dr. Foley, please understand!" She threw her hands apart in despair."I love children. I would have an acre of them if I were married, oreven in the mood for any other alliance. But men just don't fit myframe of reference. And regardless of what kind of a damned fool I maymake of myself in the future, I haven't, to date! Doctor, the kind ofcooperation you ask for hasn't been known for two thousand years."
I tried another tack. "Well, sinc