Do you have children, Mabel?’ It’s such an innocent question, but such a barbed one, too. All my life, I’ve hated it. Because when the answer is yes, people can follow it up with questions about names and ages, about how many and whether they’re boys or girls. But if the answer is no, it leads to an awkward silence no matter who’s doing the asking. I’ve gone through phases over the years. Saying no but… as if that might change in the future, though I knew it wouldn’t. Saying I was still mulling it over, and then, once it was clearly too late, that I’d never quite been able to make up my mind.
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