To everyone in the room, she seemed like just a normal girl wearing Vans, blue jeans, and a red hoodie. Except for one, for him, she’s the antithesis of normal.

His baby-blue eyes focus; sartorial elegance, that’s true, but he’s hearing the clarion call of love from the heartbeat under that regular hoodie.

She’s his everything; his eyes fill with tears. Then his whimper, barely heard by others, pierces her.

Wrapping him in her arms, she kisses his forehead. Under the hoodie, she places him against her breast. Being nourished, an embryonic word forms. It will be his first.

“Mumma.”