I looked at the counter today and thought, "What? This is a hit?" Fair warning, this chapter is going to set the tone for the rest.
And her sky is just a petal pressed in a book of a memory
Of the time he thought he loved her and they kissed
And her friends say, "Ah, he's a devil"
But she says, "No, he is a dream"
This is the world as best as I can remember it
Wichita and Little Rock managed a friendly rivalry for their husband's attentions. But, by semi-spoken agreement, Little Rock had him all to herself in the morning. He was still shy with her, but he enjoyed her laughter and smiles, and there were times when they spent more than an hour just sitting and talking. Then there were times when she brusquely interrupted with, "Less talk, more cock."
Wichita wanted more attention than usual as she got further into the pregnancy. On the nights she insisted she was especially needy, she handed her son Sam off to her sister. Once or twice a month, they would spend a night all together. Wichita never showed any envy toward her sister for sharing her husband's body, but there were more than a few dark looks exchanged when she walked in on their morning talks.
Wichita's second son arrived in May. Columbus held him up exultantly, and dubbed him Daniel. Little Rock cuddled him and got what might be a smile, while Wichita lay looking a little too pleased. As Little Rock gave the newborn to his mother, Wichita hugged her and whispered, "Your time's coming."
Little Rock was reasonably sure she conceived that night.
Columbus and his wives hadn't seen much of Tallahassee since they settled on their homestead in northern California. He was still roaming, killing all the zombies he could find. But once in a while he dropped by. "Holy *!" he said as Little Rock came out to meet him, "the little sister got big!"
Little Rock smiled and cradled the bulge in her belly. "Yup... I'm four months along." As she turned to call to her husband and sister, Tal frowned.
"There's settlements cropping up all over the place," Tal said. "There's a big one not twenty miles from here that just opened a hospital." He glanced to Little Rock, then to Columbus.
Little Rock was amicable to going to the hospital, but over one thing and another they didn't get around to it until early in the sixth month. That was when Wichita found her lying in front of the toilet in a pool of blood. As Columbus drove breakneck through the mountains, Little Rock whimpered over and over: "I had a boy... a boy."
