On Freezing and Fleeing

I sat sobbing on the cold tile floor at my in-laws’ house. Exhausted, I had mistaken familiarity for safety.

“You’re just too emotional. She’ll hate you for it one day,” they said.

My tears kept moving, but I didn’t.

The baby cradled tightly in my arms cooed.

A long life awaited her. So that was our last visit.

Eight years later, my daughter told me she was studying five-lined skinks. “They freeze around predators. And if that doesn’t work, they run away, but they have to leave a piece of themselves behind, like a tail. Can you even imagine that?”