Cal swung by Georgetown Day School to pick up Lewis first. His school day finished forty minutes earlier than his younger brother's, which was plenty of time for them to head across the border to Maryland and pick up Owen from Concord Hill School afterwards. Gillian had established the meeting place for both boys seeing as she usually did the school run in the afternoons so Cal made sure he was there before the bell went and the children started pulling out. The high school went until three but the middle school were out earlier and Cal searched the faces for his son. At ten, Lewis had shot up early, so he was a little bit taller than his peers. He still couldn't pick him out of the crowd though, even when he ran right up to Cal and stood there in front of him.

"Oh hi," Cal greeted, surprised.

"Hi Dad," Lewis raised his hand to his forehead. Cal put a hand on the boys shoulder to start them heading down the block to where he had parked. Then they would head to get Owen. As they walked along boys and girls rushed past, squeezing the ten-year-old's other shoulder or arm to wave goodbye. Lewis grinned and waved and Cal watched him feeling proud and kind of amazed; it wasn't often he got to see his son in an environment that wasn't home.

They reached the car and got in. Lewis still had to sit in the back but now that he was taller, even though he was close to the required age, but he didn't need a booster seat anymore. Cal waited for him to buckle up before pulling away from the curb. They headed north for Maryland. Cal was on school duty because Gillian was working late. Cal didn't mind it because he got to spend time with the boys and make dinner for her, and skip out on his work early.

"Dad?"

"Yeah buddy?" Cal turns his head a little and raised his voice so Lewis could hear him over the road noise. Lewis sat behind the passenger's seat so he could still see his father and Cal could throw out the occasional sign if it was possible.

"What's a vasectomy?"

Cal just about slammed the breaks on and the traffic in front of him wasn't even stopping. "Um, what? What did you say?"

"What's a vasectomy?" Lewis repeated, raising his voice a little.

"Uh um, why, who do you?" Cal stumbled. "How come you're askin' about that?"

"My friend said his Dad just got a vasectomy and he's walking around holding his balls," Lewis giggled.

"Right," Cal muttered to himself. He checked his mirrors to change lanes. Once he was finished with the manoeuvre he explained. "A vasectomy is when um, when the tube that the sperm comes out of the testes gets cut so that sperm can't come out anymore." Cal felt the need to drop a hand over his own groin to protect his own balls. Thank god he really didn't have to worry about that with his wife anymore. Firstly, she was no longer even remotely fertile, not even an 'oopsie' was possible right now; they'd already had one and his name was Owen. And secondly, well no, in the grand scheme of things they were a lot older than all the other parents with children in Lewis's class so they didn't even have to decide if they were going to have to have more children at this point or not, the decision had been made for them.

"How do they do that? With a big knife? Do they just cut your balls off?" Lewis laughed again.

Cal chuckled. "No buddy they do it with lase-a's. They make tiny incisions and cut the tube with a lase-a and they don't even have to cut anyone open."

"But why Dad? Why would a man want to do that?"

It sounded like he was wincing but Cal couldn't be sure. He adjusted his rear-view mirror to see his son's face. He was showing disgust. "It's so he can't have babies anymore."

"Oh." Lewis met his eye. "Do all the sperm just die?"

Cal stopped at a light, watching a woman with a beagle on a lead heading across the pedestrian walk in front of him. "No. They don't die off." Well some of them did. But he knew what Lewis meant. He meant, they all die in one big spontaneous holocaust. Die was turning a hand over so the palm started out facing the ground, then rolled over to face upwards. "They just can't get out."

"So then you just make more and more and more and then kaplech!" He made the sound of an explosion. "Your balls just explode?" He cracked up again.

Cal laughed and eased off the brake to move forward again. "No. They die and get absorbed into your body," he made a one handed gesture like he was water being soaked up into a sponge; his hand open down by his side, then bringing it rapidly up to his chest and forming it into a fist. "The sperm does," Cal thought he should clarify.

"Ew."

'Yeah,' Cal though, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

"Dad is that how come you and Mum didn't have more babies?"

"No," Cal answered quickly. "There are otha ways to not have babies."

"What are they?"

Apparently it was time for round two of 'how babies are made', this time, with all the graphic details about contraception and infertility.