Maybe it was the worry
about my daughter’s stomach ache
that wasn’t going away

or waiting for over an hour
in a doctor’s office
trying to read her Geronimo Stilton
through a mask

or maybe it’s that now we’d be late
to see our friend
whose mom had just died

but when the DoorDash app
wouldn’t let me cancel the five pizzas
even though I accidentally
typed in the wrong address

my brittle mood shattered
into ugly pieces around me
and I became that woman
bristling with entitlement,
at one point calling Geronimo Stilton
an asshole.

After the doctor said my daughter
had probably just swallowed too much sea water,
I apologized profusely to the receptionist
and insisted on smudging the empty office
with pretend love spray from my fingers.

She just gave my daughter an extra sticker
and said to me with a wink,

Geronimo Stilton really is
a very annoying
mouse.