for my mother, who had a few minutes this morning to come to my rescue when i realized that i'd forgotten to pack roo's new lovey (dubbed "dotty blankie" by c.) in the diaper bag. that she lives so close by---in what would be our front yard, if we had a front yard, which we don't; we have a parking lot---is a dream come true, literally. though the details aren't exactly right (in the dream i had, at 16, we were living not next door to each other but together in a rambling house overlooking the ocean with my faceless, genderless doting spouse and a baby) they're so close it feels almost prophetic.

*

for c., who cautioned me out of the blue that the bunny graham she was eating for snack was "gluteny" and then went on to explain that she knows this because her "people"---an anonymous collective of imaginary friends who hail, she says, from south africa, a country i am 85% sure she thinks she invented---suffer from celiac disease (which is something they have in common with several actual, flesh-and-blood acquaintances.)  

i love to hear her talk about them, and i admit to pumping her for more information whenever they come up in conversation just so i can hear, again, her evasive and totally zany replies: how many of them are there? "well, sixty-seven. or five." do they have names? "i don't think so. well, actually, just not last week. or tomorrow." 

*

for audra, who texts me every night before leaving work to ask if there's anything we need and then, when i reply that "dammit, there's definitely something i was thinking of before but i can't remember it now," brings home the essentials anyway, plus cake.