My Forever Baby    

I need to go somewhere, see someone, do something with all this joyous energy coursing through me. We do a girls’ day out — my mother, my sisters, myself — at this expensive boutique, half-price sale and all. We have fun dressing my sisters in gorgeous stuff (when did Sari get so big, Ma?) and narrowing down our options. It seems funny that I’m the only one aware of the latest discovery in my life.

And then I spot it: the tiniest, most precious, most perfect baby hat, baby pink and rose gold, a single soft pinch forming a gorgeous bow. The label says Sonia Rykiel, size zero to three months, $100.

“Ma, for my baby,” I say, putting it atop the heap of clothing in her arms. I say it quietly, so the shoppers don’t hear, but casually, so that she doesn’t suspect a thing.

“Gorgeous,” she says, fingering it gently, and putting it right back onto the shelf it came from.