Her eyes downcast, fingers probing her phone for the latest news, texts, social.

She doesn’t hear me whisper, Put it away for sixteen years.

The child, already wiggling to escape his stroller, will soon be driving off to college, and that will be the most unanticipated announcement of her life.

Annette Gulati writes from Seattle, WA. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Five Minute Lit, Nunum, The Oregonian, Sasee, and elsewhere.