It must have been the summer before the pandemic when my step-father’s school friend decided to visit us. The friend, Edwin, brought his family, as well as their family friends. It was a large group and the parents were all around my own parent’s age- mid to late fifties. We were sitting on the deck enjoying the heat of the summer air when Edwin, the only actual person who was friends with my step-father, turned to me.
“Do you think you’ll want children?” he asked not-yet-seventeen-year-old Serenity.