His Mother Asks

Visiting John’s mother last week and while he was in the kitchen making coffee his mother turned to me and said, “Do you love him?”

We’ve been together a couple of years and I have known her for more than a year. She’s seen us together in many settings and has, I know, talked to him about me. Then this question, “Do you love him?”

It is a mother asking, “Do you love my boy?” and “Are you going to be good for him?” and “Will you take care of him?”

It was also, and I heard this, a mother saying, “Don’t hurt my boy.”