the same genetic material. Mr. McGilly is Mimi Maycomb’s father.”
“I’ll be goddamned!” Mike Maycomb blasphemed, at the same time Lily had been thinking theexact same thing.
“Thank you, Doctor,” Judge Sanders said. “I’ll retire to my chambers to do the paperwork.
Custody of Mimi Maycomb will be awarded jointly to Mr. and Mrs. Benny Jack McGilly.”
Lily was being hugged by Jeanie and Big Ben before she could even process the information shehad been given. “Congratulations, honey!” Jeanie squealed. “I told you everything was gonna be fine.”
Big Ben chucked his stunned son on the shoulder. “I knew it, boy! I knew it!” Big Ben whooped.
“A McGilly man don’t have to do nothin’ but look at a woman to get her pregnant.”
“Apparently not,” Ben mumbled.
“Come on,” Jeanie said, taking Lily by the hand, “let’s be good sports.”
Jeanie led Lily to the table where the Maycombs were arguing bitterly with Stephen Hamilton.
“Frankly,” Lily heard Ida say to her husband, “I’d be a whole lot more sure of this if they’d let a whiteman do the DNA tests.”
“Excuse us,” Jeanie said. Charles, Ida, and Maycomb turned to face her, looking shocked. “I justwanted to let y’all know that you can visit Mimi whenever you want to.” Jeanie’s smile was sweet andwelcoming. “But if I ever hear you say one hateful word about my son or my daughter-in-law, you’llnever see hide nor hair of your granddaughter again.” Her smile was just as bright when she led Lilyaway from Charlotte’s slack jawed family.
Soon Lily and Ben were in the car, on their way to pick up Mimi — Mimi who was theirsofficially, who could not be taken away from them. Lily’s happiness was overshadowed by only oneminor factor: She was completely baffled. “So,” she said to Ben, “how did you rig it?”
Ben looked as if someone had just shaved forty points off his IQ. “Rig ... what?”
“Rig the DNA test! Mimi has the DNA of two dead people. So how did you fake it?”
“I honestly don’t know what happened. I mean, Dez was the sperm donor for you and Charlotte,right? The ‘designated wanker,’ he used to call himself.” Ben laughed. “I remember once he said to me —
you know how Dez talked — he said, ‘Benjamin, my dear boy, when I was sixteen, I never thought I’dget tired of wanking off, but dear god, this sperm donor thing is putting welts on my weenie. Now I knowwhy Portnoy complained.’”
Ben laughed, and Lily joined him. It felt so good to laugh now ... now that she knew that Charlotteand Dez’s biological child would be raised in a way that would have made them happy.