Today you turn
five. You are
clumsy in dresses, but you want to wear one anyway, a
white cotton thing with blue at the sleeves and collar.
I take you to the pet store with the intention of buying you a fish, but you would much rather have a lizard, a green one. We take a gecko home with us who you later name Radley. You are not bothered by feeding him insects. You are not at all like me in this way. You are not bothered by much of anything.
We set up Radley's aquarium, spreading sand at the bottom. You watch him all night crawling through rocks and logs. I watch you watch him. I wonder who you will turn into.