His once raven-black eyes have grown ice-blue with age. The melanin—the amino acid that gives color to skin, eyes, and hair, and whose natural quantity in a body determines whether that person should be considered black or white—is decreasing in Dad’s body. In two lifetimes, perhaps his great-grandchildren will be born with blue eyes and blinding-white skin. How will that drop of midnight, that melanin left in our line but watered down through the generations, reveal itself? It occurs to me that I might be the last in our family to care about my skin color, which spaces I’m welcome in, who
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