The Memory Collectors

by Dete Meserve

In the future, I no longer get to buy sippy cups or crayons or children’s toothpaste. We won’t go to the library or playground or buy ice cream cakes. I don’t get to run to the shoe store with him because his feet have grown seemingly overnight or get to take him shopping at the toy store to find a birthday gift for one of his friends. I no longer have drawers filled with birthday cards and wrapping paper for impromptu invitations, nor do I have stashes of colored markers and stickers in case he can’t find anything to do.