My Mother, the Universe

After we moved to America from Bahrain, my mother would take my sister and me to a pond to watch ducks. We were always alone. At 5, I asked her, “Are you Allah?” She seemed to know everything. Little did either of us know that we were driving three towns over for these ducks, passing dozens of parks (with ducks) along the way. Now, I’m 26. Because of the coronavirus, our annual 200-person Eid party is back to just us, like the days at the pond when I looked up at her beaming face and saw a universe looking back. — Daanish Jamal