“
What’s the importance of family, my love?” Mother stroked my hair as I was curled up in her lap. It was late out, the fireplace keeping us warm as an unremarkable movie played in front of us. Dad had just left us a couple of months ago.
I remember my eyes being glued to the television screen as we had the conversation, even though I wasn’t paying attention to it. Even before this was brought up, I wasn’t listening and instead paying attention to the sound of my mother’s heartbeat and the way her breathing moved in sync with it as well as her chest, moving up and down. “I don’t know, momma. So you grow up kind?”
She chuckled, placing her finger on the tip of my nose, “So that you grow up loved.
”
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