Prologue

“Mom can I have an orange?” Leah says, her beautiful big blue eyes staring at me, the tiny little fingers of my six year old daughter, gripping the side board of my platform water bed.

“No,” I groan. “It’s five in the morning honey.” I would like to have thought 

that I responded with sweetness to this little person whom I love.

She sinks down out of my view, fingers still gripping the bed side. 

I had just fallen asleep, not yet quite ready for my kitchen life. Through my 

lashes I see her rise, eyes peering at me, fingers still in place.

“Mom, can I have an apple?” Leah is the only one awake at this hour.

“Mommy needs to sleep baby, please let me sleep just a little longer?" 

I whisper back. 

She slips away and reappears one last time. “How about a banana, can 

I have a banana?" 

My eyelids clinch tight, I scream, “Fine eat the whole damn kitchen, 
I don’t care!” Burrowing myself deep under my pillow, I hear her little 

feet pad pad pad out of my bedroom.

“Thank you Mommy,” she sings back to me.  

I can still see in my mind, the triumphant smile that graced her face 

that particular morning.


~Isa