The doctor put out a long thin hand and shook Alfy’s arm. “Can’t you hear what I’m saying?” he said sharply.
Alfy turned his head. His eyes were very blank. “I guess you’d better do what you think,” he said slowly. “Yeah, do what you think.”
“You haven’t understood,” the doctor said. “I can try and save the child—”
Alfy nodded. “Yes, sure, I understood,” he broke in, “save Margie. It doesn’t matter about the kid. She can have another some other time. Yeah, save Margie.”
The doctor gave them both a hard, puzzled look, and then went upstairs again. They heard him walk along the passage and go into Margie’s bedroom.
Alfy said, “So it didn’t go wrong, after all.”
George said, without looking up: “No, it didn’t go wrong. We were crazy to have done it, Alfy. We didn’t think you’d know. Margie wanted the kid. I wanted Margie. There was nothing else in it. Honest to God, Alfy, you’ve got to believe that. We were just crazy. It was when we all went up river. When we fished the swamp. You didn’t make camp until late. It was a hell of a thing to have done. Honest, Alfy, I’ve felt bad about it. You were crazy not to have given her a kid; that was all she wanted. Look, I’ll get out of here. There was nothing else to it, Alfy. She’s yours; she’d never be anyone else’s. It was just the river, the moon, and her wantin’ a kid. You believe that, don’t you?”
Alfy sat down on the edge of the table. He felt slightly sick. He wanted Margie more than he wanted anything else in the world. He didn’t want her to die. He was surprised that he felt nothing about George and Margie. He could understand that. She did want a kid. She’d fixed her mind on a kid. Hadn’t George said that there was nothing else behind it? He hadn’t lost Margie’s love. It was just that those two had been crazy. He could understand that. If he hadn’t been such a dumb bastard and put his boat before giving her a kid, this would never have happened. When Margie was all right, he’d fix things for her. He wasn’t going to be a dope any more.
George got slowly to his feet.
“It’s all right,” Alfy said. “You wait, we’ll see this thing through.”