Elizabeth went to Swanson’s Children’s World at the mall to pick out a last minute something for her cousin’s baby shower. Babies weren’t really Elizabeth’s thing. She was thirty-four years old and had never even had sex, much less a baby. Strolling the aisles was giving her a headache. Then something on an upper shelf caught her eye.

A doll. The thing was, the doll closely resembled Elizabeth as a teenager. She was wearing a sort of cheerleader’s outfit in the colors of Elizabeth’s high school. Maybe the hair was a slightly different color, a bit lighter than Elizabeth’s hair was now, and in a somewhat different style, but maybe it was the style of Elizabeth’s hair back then, half a lifetime ago.

Elizabeth stepped closer. Now she could see that the doll wasn’t wearing underwear, and between the doll’s legs—how awful!—a sexual crease. Elizabeth shuddered. She couldn’t help remembering the doll she had as a child. Mimi. It wasn’t anything like this doll. Mimi was made of soft cloth, almost formless, but hers. One day at play, a neighbor girl told Elizabeth where babies came from. Elizabeth was sure that couldn’t be right, but that evening Elizabeth pressed Mimi to the place her friend had told her about. It felt strange. It felt sort of tingly. “What are you doing!” her mother yelled. Elizabeth jerked Mimi away. “That’s bad, bad, bad!” her mother ranted. “Don’t ever, ever do that again.” And she snatched Mimi from Elizabeth’s hands. “Never, never, never,” her mother repeated as she slammed the door closed. Elizabeth never saw Mimi again.