Whenever I go to playgroups, people look at Neko and nod with this look of, “Well, of course they’re mother and daughter. They look exactly alike.” But when their eyes settle on Shep, my blonde, blue-eyed child, they look at him, and then me, and then back again. It’s clear they think I must be babysitting.
Then we see these people at the grocery store, but this time it’s our whole family. And they look at Tom, and there is that look of relief, like when you finally found that missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle underneath a couch cushion.