Cat In An Indigo Mood

Chapter 43

Fathers

"Matt has been busy since last we met."

Nick's announcement brought nervous laughter of recognition and unease.

"I don't kow how you could do it," Damien said. "Talk to that demented girl, worse than an abortionist, an unnatural mother."

Matt took the words as if aimed at him. "If she was an unnatural mother, she had an unnatural father first," he said quietly.

"How so?"

"I managed to see her. In . . .custody. Her own father was the . . . father. That's why she was in such denial about her pregnancy."

" 'Denial.' The Pharisees in the New Testament were in 'denial' about Christ. Is it all right that they turned him over to be crucified, then?"

"They weren't sixteen-year-old girls."

"Well, l think Matt did a heroic bit of situation-saving there," Nick "said. "Apparently she called into some entertainment radio WCOO? WACO?"

Matt swallowed a smile. He should have realized he'd return as a cause celebre. "WCOO.

We Care Only about Others."

"Is that the one with that Oprah-type show?"

"Ambrosia. A self-help guru of the airwaves. Actually quite a good amateur psychologist.

Anyway, her listeners are devoted to her. And poor Daisy felt encouraged enough to call."

"Must have been . . . hell," Nick said. "Picking up the phone and hearing that awful situation reveal itself. Makes old-style confessions in dark boxes seem like a picnic. You stopped her from killing that infant."

Matt took a deep breath. "So they tell me."

"How could you be so calm when two lives were hanging by threads over that phone line ?"

Jerry wanted to know.

"I've had some recent revelations. Really. I ran into a son of an unwed mother from the fifties, saw how bitter he was, how few options he had. My own mother-- Let's just say l wonder what the Virgin Mary would have done if she hadn't had an angel to tell her what was what.

Maybe she would have thought she'd had an alien visitation too. And she really did."

"Angels as aliens. An interesting conceit," said Nick, with a wry smile. "Makes you wonder if all those deluded alien abductees are simply seeking a touch of grace in this secular world."

"Or if the saints have been deluded," Norbert said.

"What will happen to her?" Damien asked.

"She'll be psychoanalyzed, then possibly charged. The baby's been taken away, for now, at least. I doubt she could get custody without a caretaker family in her life, and her real family are hardly candidates for anything but criminal charges. I'm told there's a high demand for white babies, no matter the background."

"Poor, poor creatures."

"We are, aren't we ?"

Nods and silence.