Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [61]
Walt had told a fascinating story, but that was just talk. What had Jack actually seen? Nothing.
He passed Adams—Weezy’s street. He had to see her today, but later. First, Kate.
Repair of spontaneous recanalization of right vas deferens post 1962 vasectomy explained “a lot of things”?
He wanted to know just what sort of things.
4
He’d finished his Eggowich by the time he found her. She sat on a lakeside bench with some sort of textbook in her lap, staring at the water and what Mr. Drexler had called “the little people.” Any more canoes on the lake and there’d be gridlock. Mark Mulliner would be smiling tonight when he counted his rental money.
“Whatcha reading?”
“Histology.”
“Let me guess: the study of snake noises.”
She gave him a gentle slap on his thigh. “The study of tissues—all microscope stuff.”
“Sounds like a page-turner.”
She laughed. “For me it is. It’s fascinating.”
“As much as the recanalization of a vas deferens?”
“Spontaneous recanalization—that’s the important part.”
He did his bad Ricky Ricardo imitation. “Hokay, Lucy. ’Splain it to me.”
She closed her book and half turned to face him. The breeze ruffled her short blond hair.
“Do you know what a vasectomy is?”
He nodded. “Male sterilization. You cut the vas deferens.”
She laughed. “I’m impressed.”
“I looked it up yesterday.”
“Figured. But the vas is more than simply cut. Its cut end is cauterized—burned so it will scar shut—and then stitched for extra measure. Everyone wants to be absolutely sure that no sperm will get into that tube.”
Jack shrugged. It seemed obvious. “Otherwise, why bother doing it at all?”
“Exactly. But rarely—very rarely—the two cut ends meet up and form a new connection, a new passage that allows sperm through and undoes the sterilization.”
Jack frowned. “But if it’s cut and burned and stitched, how…?”
“It happens,” Kate said with a shrug. “Dad wasn’t a unique case. It’s been documented a number of times, most often shortly after surgery, but also years later. And it’s not so surprising when you think about it, since everything in our body, in our genes, in our very being, is aimed toward reproduction. It’s second only to self-preservation. A vasectomy is, in a sense, the creation of a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum.”
Jack thought of the margarine commercial where the lady says, It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!
He tried to picture the two cut ends wriggling toward each other and fusing, but had trouble. It required picturing Dad’s scrotum, and his mind rebelled.
“So think about it,” Kate said.
“I’d rather not.”
“No, really. According to the bill, Dad had had a vasectomy in 1962. That would be a year after I was born.”
“Yeah, it would. You think they had their boy and had their girl, and decided to call it quits?”
She shrugged. “Seems obvious. They were both in their thirties already. The older the mother, the greater the chance of birth defects. The birth control pill was brand-new back then, so it was probably the smart thing to do.”
“Easy for you to say. You were already born.”
The thought that he hadn’t been wanted popped into Jack’s brain. He knew it was childish, but it was hard to ignore. Getting sterilized meant they didn’t want any more kids. Therefore his folks hadn’t wanted him.
He shook it off before woe-is-me violins could begin whining in the background.
“But listen—six years is a long time to wait before recanalization. Think what Dad must have thought when Mom told him she was pregnant.”
That hadn’t occurred to Jack.
“Mom? Oh, he couldn’t have even—”
“I’m sure it crossed his mind. How could it not? Here he was, certified sterile for six years, and suddenly his wife is pregnant. But a simple sperm count cleared things up, I’m sure.”
Jack took a breath. “Okay. So I’m an accident.”
She slapped his arm. “A much-loved accident.”
Yeah, well, he couldn’t argue