PAUL SEIFERT, M.D.

CONTENTS:

Home

Short Stories:
Human Cheese, Incorporated
Grenadine
The Land of Give and Take
Saint Simeon
Carlos and the Visitor
The Blues Singer
The Transformation
Emily

Selected Poetry: 1974-
Poetry

Novels:
The Certification of America, Vol. 1
Corridor O
  Introduction
  Overture
In The Shadow Of The Cathedral
The Man Who Could Read Minds
Rachel and Annie
The Family Heirloom
The Atheist in the Foxhole:
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3

3

Matron X sat gazing at her image in the glass. The time was late afternoon. She primped and posed from time to time, obviously pleased that she was an attractive young woman. Her only concern was the fact that she had not yet conceived a child, after almost three years of marriage. She was aware of the meaningful glances and the subtle whispering of her matronly friends and relatives. She peered long at herself, wondering what could possibly be wrong. She removed a tattered calendar from a table drawer. She had come around on January l2th. Another two weeks of anticipation this month.

In response to the production of estrogen and progesterone by the newly formed corpus luteum in her right ovary, the endometrium of Matron X's uterus was undergoing thickening and engorgement with blood, in anticipation of a possible gestation.

Dr. Ash had examined both she and her husband. There appeared to be nothing wrong.

Over the ensuing days, Matron X's endometrium would continue to thicken, becoming vascular, succulent, rich in glycogen, and ideal for the nourishment and growth of any fertilized ovum that might pass by and consider a sojourn there.

Matron X leaned toward the surface of the mirror. She scrutinized closely the skin bordering her eyes. There was still time. She experienced, however, an unexpected rush of anxiety. Catecholamines surged into her circulation via both adrenal veins, raising her sympathetic tone abruptly. This resulted in tachycardia, barely perceptible as a pulsation beneath her left breast. There had also occurred sudden stimulation of apocrine and eccrine sweats glands in her palms, soles, and axillae. Abrupt constriction of her cutaneous vasculature caused Matron X to become suddenly pale.

What if they never had a baby? Matron X had conjured the specters of fear, panic, and despair which welled up into consciousness as images cascaded through her mind of the loss of love and mate, disgrace, alienation, and hopelessness, ending in a spinster's death alone in some dark and forbidding room.

Patron X guided his automobile to a halt in the driveway outside his home. As he applied force to the breakpedal, a screeching sound was emitted, consisting of oscillating waves of energy of variable frequency. Those waves with frequencies between 800 and 6000 cycles per second found their way through Matron X's external auditory canals, and set into vibration her tympanic membranes. The malleus, incus, and stapes of each of her ears transmitted these vibrations to her cochleae where they were transformed into electrical impulses in her brain. These impulses jolted Matron X from her fears and back to reality. She jumped from her chair and ran to greet her husband at the door.