"And then what happened?"
The little girl tilted her head up to look at her mother. She tugged at her arm and shook it. "And then what happened, Mama?"
The woman did not answer. Her eyes stared blankly ahead. It was only after the girl had shaken her several more times that she finally surfaced from wherever she had been. "What?"
The little girl pouted with displeasure. "I asked what happened next. Mama, what happened after that?"
The woman forced a faint smile onto her face. "Nothing happened after that."
She turned the shower back on and rinsed the suds from the girl's body with warm water. Then she wrapped her in a large bath towel, dried her off, and carried her into the living room. "Go play."
Children carried no burdens. The moment the girl spotted the Barbie doll on the table,
