The woman crossed to the shopping center when the pains started. Oh, that smarted, she thought. She knew there wasn’t time to dawdle. Her mother and son were with her. They had intended a day out to celebrate her mother being in town, but that was not going to happen.

 Her four-year-old son looked at her with concern. “Mom, are you okay?” 

Apprehension and a touch of thrill ran through her. It was finally time. Pregnancies felt like forever to her.

She would call her husband from a merchant’s phone. There’s time to make it to the hospital. But the baby was not waiting long. She felt his urgency. Of course, it was a boy. She knew this.

For several months, she had been thinking of names and could only imagine another boy. There were reasons, and she didn’t talk about them. No one needs to know the inner thoughts that led her not to want to bring a baby girl into this world. Girls were fine, maybe, for other women, but not for her. She shook her head. The time wasn’t right for those thoughts. A baby was coming, and she had to get to the phone at the closest store and call her husband. 

A few hours later, she’d delivered a beautiful blonde baby boy. The birth was easy. He was a happy baby, too. All children should be like this, she was thinking. She wanted to protect him from the world’s corruption. All the sadness of this family. And she tried.

Later, her little darling lay on a quilt in the middle of the living room. He was all smiles and giggles. Sunshine filtered through the curtains, and it seemed like a spotlight highlighting his golden hair. 

The moment was perfect. The young mother didn’t know it yet but these days would be the best of her life. This house, with the space available, this town, close to the store and school, and this body with the energy she had.

In years to come, there would be other homes, other visits with her mother, and even another child, an unexpected girl. The mother would have a full life filled with grandchildren, and days of love and sorrow. 

In all her days, she clung to those old memories and never let them go. In her mind, the memory of the little boy with blonde hair and the light shining on his head would always be special, her moment. They were the golden days for her. 

—a short by Kay Bailey