The Misconception Read Free

fabric of her coat.
    Focus , she told herself, which was difficult with her sister’s boot heels click-clacking behind her. Resigned to apologizing, Marietta turned at the same time the pointed toe of Tracy’s boot caught in a crack. Her sister pitched forward, arms akimbo, and Marietta was just quick enough to catch her as she fell.
    “You can’t do this, Mari.” Tracy clawed her way up her sister’s body until she was standing upright again. “You just can’t.”
    Marietta paused, affected by the dismay on her sister’s expressive face. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was meeting Harold today, honey, but my clock is tick-tick-ticking. It’s so loud that most of the time it sounds like a boom-boom-boom.”
“Then get a silencer!”
Marietta pursed her lips. “The next time I decide to do something like this, remind me not to confide in you.”
“The next time! I couldn’t survive a next time. Once is bad enough.”
    “It was a figure of speech. I just told you. I’m primed for pregnancy. There’s no guarantee I’ll achieve my objective on the first attempt, but hopefully I won’t have to set up another meeting.”
    “Another meeting? You mean, another sexual encounter.” Tracy fanned herself with one of her hands. “I think I’m going to faint.”
    “We’ve been over this before, Tracy.” Marietta held up her sister’s limp body, wishing she could make her understand. “Without sex, there can’t be reproduction. And reproduction is essential for the preservation of the species. For a woman, the desire to become a mother is the strongest of all the biological urges. I have no intention of denying mine.”
    “I’m not proposing you deny it.” Tracy still clung to her. Her green eyes were pleading. “I’m suggesting that placing an ad in a magazine for eggheads might not have been the best way to go about getting a baby.”
    “The magazine is for people of superior intelligence,” Marietta corrected, peeling her sister’s clutching fingers off her clothes as she talked. “The male’s genetic material accounts for half the baby’s makeup. By choosing someone with desirable qualities, I’m merely looking out for my baby’s welfare. Surely you’ve heard of the terms natural selection and survival of the fittest.”
“There’s nothing natural about what you’re doing! The natural process would be to fall in love with a man and have his baby.”
Marietta sniffed, moved to her car and yanked open the door. “You know how I feel about love.”
“I know you have a warped view of love.”
    Marietta swallowed her retort. Bringing up her theory about the myth of the monogamous man would only hurt her sister. Tracy had been separated from her cheating husband for seven months, and she still wasn’t over the snake.
    “That’s your opinion,” Marietta said.
    “Here’s another one,” Tracy said. “Try artificial insemination instead.”
    “An unnatural option. Did you know that freshly collected semen have a much higher success rate than frozen spermatozoa during the artificial insemination process? That alone proves the natural way is better.” Marietta forced herself to shrug. What good would it do to confide in Tracy that she was tempted, even at this late date, to take the easier route. “Besides, why do I need artificial insemination when I already have everything I want in a sperm supplier?”
    Marietta punctuated her statement by getting into the car. Before she could reach for the door handle, Tracy positioned her body inside the open door and leaned down, banging her forehead on the door frame in the process. She held her head with one hand and grabbed Marietta’s wrist with the other.
    “Wait. Think about this logically and consider what could go wrong. How can you be sure this Harold doesn’t have a communicable disease?”
    “I have copies of his medical records.”
    Tracy bit her lip, a long-held character trait that meant she was thinking. “Okay. Then here’s