I looked down at the manuscript on my lap, shuffled among the multiplication flashcards and the book on surviving any disaster. We'd just read about how to defend oneself against lowland gorillas, which I doubt we'll ever see in Missouri.

"Mama, do you ever feel like you should be doing something that you aren't?" she asked.

I laughed. Isn't that the question of the human condition?

"Yeah. I feel like I should finish this novel."

"Mama? I think when this one is done, you should take a break before starting another."

I paused. I don't have a good reason for writing stories. Except I like to.

"I am struck by the mediocrity of my finest hour," wrote Ani DiFranco. I first heard it when I was barely twenty, and now twenty years later, it still gets to me.

I want to write a sentence like that before I'm done.