Three octopus hearts

It may sound morbid to you

but the mother had her reasons

when she considered freezing her little girl

and preserving her at 5 years and three months

forever.

And the reasons were these:

One day the little girl had told her mother,

“If I had three hearts like an octopus, I’d use just two of them.”

“What would you do with the third?” the mother wanted to know.

“I’d save it. In case someone broke the other two.”

And another day the little girl said,

“It’s a doggie dog world.”

And the mother didn’t correct her

because who needs a dog eat dog kind of world anyway?

And the mother thought about

how the little girl would learn that

Santa Claus is just some guy at the mall

and the tooth fairy is her grandma who has too much change

and that her father doesn’t have all the answers

nor is he the tallest person in the world

and no one knows where dead people go

and it is a dog eat dog world

and there are no emergency hearts.

And the mother thought

the saddest days in the world

must be those where you learn things

and stop believing things.