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I ca fivethe Ant&039;s perfu on the far end of the couch, leaning forward, and staring raptly into Sinclair&039;s face Her hands were pal at the leather, but she never looked away fro Why, exactly, e doing this? I wasn&039;t even sure how I felt about it, but here ere anyway, digging around the Ant&039;s substandard brain And as Sinclair so interested? Didn&039;t he have king stuff to worry about? A suit fitting so to attend, or teach? But here he was, sitting on the denietting everything out of her Everything

" and then I tried to get him to propose, but he wouldn&039;t do it, he was afraid Betsy would get mad at him if he left her mother, so we broke up"

"Yes, but the baby?" Sinclair asked

"The baby the baby"

"Man, she is getting freaked," Marc muttered to me "Look at her"

I looked Scratch, scratch went her nails against her leatherlike she&039;d had a stroke

And I could slue

"I don&039;t remember"

"Antonia, you reht of it inopen, and shecaroped and found Sinclair&039;s hands, and the rest of her sordid tale just just poured out Like vonant to get married, but it didn&039;t work, and then the baby was here, and it wasn&039;tit, screa into Sinclair&039;s hands as she hung on for dear life "It was supposed to work, and it didn&039;t work, and I didn&039;t knohat happened, so I dropped her off went to the hospital and left her in the lobby nobody was around, but I knew someone would probably find her so I put her down and never never"

"Jesus," I said, startled

"The last time the Ant was this upset," Jessica whispered to me, "you caht, Antonia," Sinclair soothed "Of course it wasn&039;t you Who was it?"

"I don&039;t know, I don&039;t know" She bowed her head, and a dry sob escaped "I was pregnant and then I wasn&039;t and the baby the baby"

"Antonia, what day did you find out you were pregnant?"

"Halloween Nineteen sixty-five"

"And what day was the next day? The day you woke up and the baby was already there?"

"August sixth, nineteen sixty-six She was-she wasn&039;t a newborn I don&039;t kno old she was, but she wasn&039;t a newborn"

Dead silence while we all processed this Marc hurried to Sinclair&039;s side and whispered a question to him

"Antonia, we&039;re al at the floor "I&039;"

"Yes, fine, Antonia, look up at me-that&039;s better Antonia, is there a history of mental illness in your family?"

"We don&039;t talk about that"

"Of course not, only nasty people talk about that"

She was nodding so hard her hair actually ht, only nasty people-whiners, and-and-"

"But as sick? In your farandh, not mine"

"No, of course not And you&039;re different from them"

"It&039;s just my nerves," she explained "I just have very delicate nerves She doesn&039;t understand"

"No, she&039;s not really the understanding type, is she?"

"Hey," I protested mildly

"Anybody else would have stayed dead," the Ant went on, sounding aggrieved "She didn&039;t even have the class to do that Has to be different-and-different-and has to rise and be a vampire A vampire! She broke her father&039;s heart"

"Class?" I yelped "Oh, being undead is, what, classless now? And it&039;s not like I had a choice, you tiny-brained, idiotic, shallow, Botoxed, gutless, chinless-"

"She lives with that rich Negro," the Ant confided "And they&039;re not ?"