Eileen lets Denise lick the wooden spoon. Mighty Mouse has just started, but the warm smell of vanilla carries Denise off the couch. She brings the pink step stool from beside the toy chest. The green linoleum is cold beneath her tiny feet, but the oven warms her head and shoulders.
“Here,” says Eileen, “careful.”
The spoon is too big, but Denise won’t be deterred—she jams its grainy well into her mouth.
Eileen laughs at her daughter’s duck-billed lips, then nearly cries thinking of her own prognosis, sees a motherless duckling waddling toward a chaotic current…
Maria slouches near the reference desk squinting through porthole-thick lenses at Little Women.The librarian special-ordered new large-print titles, and Maria prays they arrive before her eleventh birthday…