Fifty-nine dollars of the five hundred bought a second-hand (or third- or fourth-hand) 1952 Crosley Station Wagon with a full tank of gas and fresh oil. Old Man Williams made the deal with Hank of Hank's Auto Repair, and Tuto went to pick it up. Tuto had no driver's license, but he could drive. Old Missus Williams made them a bunch of ham & potato salad and tomato & cheese sandwiches for their big trip.
Johnny lay spread out on the back seat, out of sight, with a blanket ready to hide under in case they were pulled over for some reason.
Tuto gripped the wheel with two hands, a big smile on his face. He absolutely loved to drive, and now he would drive all the way to new York city. He glowed with excitement.
"You can also start a new life in new York, if you want," Johnny said from the backseat as they cruised on the interstate north.
"No way! You said I keep the car to drive back home. I sure like the car, amigo!"
"Hell, you can keep it anyway. What am I going to do with it?"
"But there too many cops in New York. They pull me over, they go on and take the car. No, I go back home. I got good job now, and can't leave Old Man Williams with all the rats, nohow!"
"Well, you'd better come and visit," said Johnny.
"You bet I visit," said Tuto.
"You'd better come and visit when the baby's born, amigo!" said Faye from the passenger's seat.
Johnny had looked up Faye that very night, hours after her father had left in the police car. He had waited around, his nerves on edge, even though Faye's father had commanded him to leave immediately. But Johnny wasn't going to let a couple of rednecks tear through the village and clobber the elderly lemurians. He, his mother, and two more adult lemurians were ready for them. But no posse came. So either Faye's father had been true to his word and had made them turn around, or there never was a posse to begin with, and it had been nothing but a ruse to get rid of Johnny.
He climbed easily up the cast iron drainpipe and tiptoed over the roof tiles to Faye's bedroom window. She had left it open, and Johnny believed she might have been expecting him.
She was sound asleep, it was past 1 A.M. He took a moment to look at her calm face in the dark, heard her breathe slowly, and took in her scent. Could he smell she was pregnant like his mother had? He detected a vague odor of river clay and boiling water in her scent that hadn't been there before. He supposed he had smelled it before on people, but hadn't known how to interpret it. Now he knew.
He switched on Faye's desk lamp, and then gently shook her awake. She awoke languidly, but when she recognized him, she grabbed him and said, "Oh, Johnny!" and he had to shush her—her father slept in the next room and wouldn't appreciate him being here, nor what he came to do. Faye kissed his face, his nose, and then they kissed for real. They hadn't seen each other for over a week.
When Faye had settled down, Johnny told her about her father visiting him, and handing him money to leave town for good. This angered Faye mightily, and he had to quieten her down again.
Then he told her about how his mother had called him 'son', and had told him her life story, and how she hadn't been raped by a human after all, and now Johnny didn't quite know how to feel about that—deep down he had felt responsible for her misfortune for so long. It was the whole reason he had become interested in Lemurian religion and mythology in the first place. He had wanted to understand why she disliked him so... And now it turned out she had actually fallen in love with a human, and she had blamed him for that!
Faye listened attentively, but Johnny was talking so fast, some of his points didn't seem to register. He was rambling, and he realized he was staving off the inevitable. He wasn't telling her why his mother had told him all this. He wasn't telling her the main reason for this visit. He had to tell her. He took a deep breath.
He told her.
"Pregnant?" she whispered, looking suddenly like a confused little girl.
Johnny apologized profusely, and said how he really hadn't known he could conceive children, how he had always been told it was impossible—half-breeds were infertile, and she was so young, he'd never meant for this to happen...
But Faye didn't seem to be listening to him—she was deep in her own thoughts, eyes staring into the distance. Then she looked up, and focused her gaze on him.
"I'm so sorry," he said again, "I know you told me you didn't want a child, and I understand that if you had known you would never have— I mean, we shouldn't have—"
"I did tell you that," she said. "And you did tell me it was impossible for you to make me pregnant. But if this child wants to be born so badly that it doesn't care what's possible and what isn't... well, that's one child I do think I'd like to meet."
