And so we return to the narrative where, if the reader will recall, Natasha and Henry lay naked in her bed, where she had successfully lured him the night before; her diaphragm remained in its case in the medicine cabinet. Henry lay with his head on Natasha's stomach, tracking his fingers along her left thigh.
"What's this?" he asked, pointing to the little mark on the inner part of her thigh.
"It's nothing", said Natasha, instinctively covering the spot with her hand.
Henry pushed her hand aside and looked closely. "It's a tattoo!", he said, reading: "K.."
"Oh no", thought Natasha. She felt her world collapsing.
Henry was stunned. "You ran with the KulturPunks!"
Natasha buried her head in her pillow. "Don't hate me!" she cried.
"Why would I do that?", Henry responded. "Look at this." He pointed to the tiny KulturPunks tattoo on his forearm.
Natasha lifted her head from her pillow and looked. She was astonished. "You're a KulturPunk too!" she cried.
"Indeed", said Henry. "And I have devoted my life to pursuing the sublime and picturesque. Will you join me?"
"I will!" Natasha exclaimed, hugging him.
Henry looked into Natasha's eyes. "Let's have a baby!"
"Um..OK" said Natasha. She thought about whether or not to tell Henry that they had already taken steps in that direction; on reflection, she decided to make that her little secret.
"If it's a boy, we will call him Felix", said Henry.
"And if it's a girl, we will call her Fanny", said Natasha.
"And if it's fraternal twins, we will call them Felix and Fanny", said Henry.
"What if it's identical twins?" asked Natasha.
Henry agreed that was a poser.
Meanwhile, Molly Bloom banged away on the fugue from Beethoven's great Hammerklavier sonata; Mary Bloom had a brief but secret rendezvous; and Roderick slipped away from the "bowling party" at the Stapleton Bowl-A-Drome with Megan Cupcake.
