"A bit," she admitted. "What is the next step?"
"Now I'm supposed to pick the male donor."
"I thought you'd done that already."
"No. You see we have to know what blood types the female has and what
her genetic structure is; whether she has any antibodies against sperm
and so on, before we pick the male. To do it before the winner is
picked would entail a lot of unnecessary work."
"Then we still have some time before the impregnation ceremony?"
"I can stall for maybe four weeks ... no longer. You see I have to
consider your cycle too." He got up to go. "Gloria, I guess I was half
lit last night. I'm sorry. It was a damn-fool idea."
She came close to him. "But you really do believe in the old-fashioned
marriage, even if not in the old-fashioned girl?"
"Yes, I do. I still think people should be in love and not just mated
because a calculating machine says they'll produce superior offspring."
"You're sweet." She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. The
kiss lasted ... and lasted. Finally George broke it off.
"My God!" he mumbled. "Don't we have enough problems, without this?"
* * * * *
Three weeks later, on Monday, George announced he had a suitable donor.
The New York Genetics Panel, in session, considered the records and
announced that permission was granted for one Gloria Manson, spinster,
of New York City, to bear a child by artificial impregnation. The date
was set for Wednesday. On Tuesday night George went to Gloria's
apartment.
"What are we going to do?" Gloria asked as she watched George wearing a
path on the rug. "We've left it awfully late."
"I couldn't do anything else," George said. "We can't plead illness as
I'd hoped to do. This afternoon the panel decided on a last minute
independent medical check to be sure you're OK. That means I can't fake
it and there's no time to give you a cold or some mild illness now.
Somehow I've got to stall past the fertile period and then we will have
another month to think of something."
"How long is the fertile period?"
"Our tests show that in your case it is approximately twenty-four hours
and begins about midnight tonight."
"Couldn't I disappear for a day or pretend I'm frightened of having a
baby and call it off? Goodness knows we're both getting frightened right
now." She poured out two stiff drinks.
"You can't just quit, Gloria. The whole nation has been whipped up into
hysteria over this business, both by the politicians in their
anticommunist speeches and by the sponsors on Coloraudio system. I never
dreamed it could put a whole country into orbit ... but it has. We'll
both be ruined if I can't figure a way out that doesn't anger the
public." He drained his glass and began pacing again.
"If I have to go on with it can't you at least do something to prevent
conception?" Gloria asked. "I don't mean vaccination. I want to have
children later. I can stand the ceremony if I know I won't become
pregnant."
"In that case I could give you a shot of antiserum against sperm,"
George said. "That would stop pregnancy all right."
"Would it make me sterile for long?"
"Oh no ... no! I wouldn't use pooled serum from all types anyway. You
see we make some specific serum when we are testing each donor and it
works only against the sperm of that particular man."
"Then we're all right? All I need is a shot?"
George shook his head. "I'm afraid to risk it, Gloria. They'll probably
examine your blood tomorrow. If they found the specific antibody, or
even a general antisperm antibody, that would really get us into trouble
for fraud." He shook his head. "No. I'm afraid that's not the answer. I
don't know what to do." He poured another drink and downed it.
"George," Gloria wailed, her control breaking at last, "I don't want a
test-tube husband, a parent by proxy. I want a man!" She began to cry.
He came over to the couch and dropped down beside her. "Darling, please!
Please don't cry. There must be a way to beat this." He took her in his
arms.
* * * * *
The aircar warning light came on and the buzzer sounded. George unhooked
the automatic pilot and took over. They swung into University City and
across the campus to the Faculty residential area.
"I certainly was lucky to find a job here on retirement from the Space
Force," John Harmon said. "It was good of you to invite me to stay the
week-end. Are you sure Mrs. Turner won't mind?"
"Quite sure." George smiled. "She's been looking forward to meeting
you." He pulled the car into a spacious port and opened the front door
of the house for Harmon. A tall, good-looking brunette moved to meet
them.
"So nice to meet you, Mrs. ..." Harmon began automatically. "Great
mountains of the moon! Gloria ... Gloria Manson!" He turned to George.
"You didn't tell me."
"You mean you didn't know?" Gloria asked, and kissed him affectionately.
"I found out that he didn't. He was back in space at the time we were
married." George said. "I wanted to surprise him." A happy smile
creased his face.
Harmon stared at him. "Oh no!" he said and began to laugh. They watched
him, astonished. He tried to talk. "George ... ha, ha ... Wonderful!" He
convulsed again, struggled to a chair and collapsed. "The boy ..." he
whispered weakly between great whoops.
"The boy? Then you guessed!" The wide smile split George's face again.
"Yes, that smile ... couldn't miss it. But how?" Harmon had recovered.
They went into the living room and sat down to talk.
"So there we were," George concluded, "tanking up on lox and nothing
coming out but smoke. I was getting a bit woozy when Gloria asked me
what time it was.
"I looked at my watch. 'It's midnight,' I said. That did it.
"'Midnight!' she screeched and gave me the green-eyed tiger look. 'Well,
George Turner, maybe you can't think of something ... but I can!'
"About nine in the morning the secretary of the panel called my room at
the hotel. 'The ceremony is at ten, Doctor!' she said. 'We are waiting
for you.'
"Man, what a head I had! You could have pushed the Destruct button and
I'd never have known. Anyway I got to the hospital and there was
Gloria, looking absolutely beautiful. There were press photographers
everywhere. We went through with the ceremony and that was that. Nine
months later, with a lot of sonic booming, Boy America was born. You saw
him today."
"But he looks like you," John protested.
"He should," Gloria said. "He's his."
"But ..." John hesitated. "I don't want to pry, but how can you be
sure?"
Gloria laughed. "Well, I know what we did the first couple of hours
after midnight. You tell him the rest, George."
"There isn't much else to tell," George said. "After the ceremony I gave
her a shot of the specific antiserum as soon as I could get her alone.
Later the committee examined her blood. They found she was pregnant so
nobody even thought of testing for antisperm bodies. Then the boy was
born. Naturally I was a bit concerned. I took blood samples and did
genetic studies. There was no doubt. He was my son."
"And nobody ever suspected?" Harmon asked.
"No," Turner said. "The law prescribes examination before pregnancy but
not afterwards. We were married three months later and everybody was
very happy. As for the boy looking like me, everyone who has noticed it
assumes I picked a donor like myself. It would be a natural
inclination."
"So much for planned parenthood in the new era," Harmon chuckled. "The
poor Mayor of New York! If only he knew." He grinned slyly. "Somehow I
always did like the old way best."