Half of Paradise

“You ain’t got no more decency than a whore.”

“You shouldn’t say things about the girl you’re going to marry,” she said.

“You’re still hopped.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“What?”

“I waited to make sure before I told you.”

“Why didn’t you take care of yourself?”

“I did. It happened anyway.”

“Can’t you do something to get rid of it?”

“You want me to drink gasoline or have my stomach cut open?”

“Why the hell did you let it happen?”

“It’s here and you’re stuck with it, so think about getting a marriage license,” she said.

“How do I know it’s mine?”

“It would take you to say something like that.”

“Seth says you and Doc Elgin got something going on.”

“You and me are going to stand up before a justice of the peace. You don’t have any way out of it.”

“There ain’t no shotgun laws in this state. You can’t force me into it. All I got to do is support the child.”

“But wait till your Baptist-Methodist audience finds out about it.”

“Are you going to put signboards on the highway?”

“I’ll have a blood test made and take it into court. Then all the hicks can read about it in the paper. Lathrop and Hunnicut will give you bus fare back to your tenant farm.”

“I got half a mind to take that bus ride.”

“How are you going to pay for your habit?”

“I can still kick it. It ain’t too late,” he said.

“You’re a fool.”

“I ain’t stuck it in my arm.”

“You will.”

“Everyone don’t have to end in the junkie ward.”

“I don’t feel like hearing about your cures this morning.”

“You and that bastard Elgin got me on it,” he said.

“Go cry to somebody else about it.”