HE SHOULD never have stopped at the house.

If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have known. He wouldn’t have seen Julietta’s white face, wouldn’t have heard the panic quaver in her voice when she told him she was having contractions, that she thought she was having the baby...

“You can’t be!’’ he’d said as if he could somehow stop it just by command. As if he’d been able to command anything to do his bidding of late.

“I am,’’ Julietta said miserably. "They’ve been getting worse all day.”

“Did you call the doctor?’’

She shook her head. ‘‘I didn’t think it was going to happen. I’m not due for two months.”...