Summary

The chapter opens with an explanation that Paul Jobs was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, and that he met his future wife Clara after making a bet with a fellow semen that he could find a wife within two weeks. Clara was the daughter of Armenian refugees who fled the Turkish. She had also been previously married (her husband died in the conflict) which she kept secret. In 1952, they moved to San Francisco, and Paul became a repo man.

The narrative then shifts to Joanne Schieble, a Catholic woman, who fell in love with a Muslim, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali. She became pregnant but could not wed John due to her father’s commanders. She also could not have an abortion due to the small Catholic town in which she lived. She decided to give the baby...