31.05.06 - 4:03 p.m.

everyone had swarmed around to give congratulations and suggest names now that this thing was real, with a sex and a bladder and a four-chambered heart. i stood there (and smiling, well-wishing sincerely) when she, whose own belly was not -- for a few moments -- the center of attention (hers still unnamed, still sexless to the world. just green or yellow; frogs and fish), from her chair glanced at me, then back again to lock her eyes to mine and mouth are you okay? i nodded and she smiled; we rejoined the festivities and toasted with small chocolates the little girl inside of our friend.