Summary
In “Birthmates,” a man named Art Woo books the cheapest hotel room he can find for a business trip. When he arrives, he finds himself in a shabby neighborhood and that gives him an uneasy feeling. He becomes increasingly paranoid and unplugs the telephone to use as a weapon in case of burglars. In the morning, he meets a group of children on the way to the conference center. This leads him to think about his ex-wife Lisa, and how he will never have children. Some of the children try to take the phone from him as a dare, but Art is preoccupied with thoughts about running into his competitor Billy Shore at the conference, and if Billy may make fun of him for having the phone. As he is thinking, the children steal the telephone and knock him unconscious with it. The story returns to Art’s thoughts about troubles with his wife, including his infertility.
When she finally did become pregnant after a long time of medication, they lost their baby to brittle bone disease, and it became the tipping point of their divorce. Art wakes and finds himself under the care of an African American woman named Cindy and begins to feel attracted to her. He finally makes it to the conference and thinks about Billy being his birthmate, then finds that Billy quit for another job. Art returns to his hotel room and think about moving West for a new job and calling Lisa about it. He decides not to, and instead thinks about their baby who would’ve suffered if he had been born.


Meaning
The author of this story means to convey the destructiveness of passivity in both personal and professional life. When Art arrives at his hotel room, “he double-lock[s] his door,” checks behind all the furniture for peepholes and “unplug[s] the handset of his phone” to use in self-defense. This, and the fact he isn’t very tall and gets bullied by children, immediately gives the image of a weak and passive man. He envies the confidence and ease of his c...