KATIE KING Essayist

I’ve been spending a lot of time on ancestry.com after doing the DNA test they tell you not to do. On both sides of my family, long-lost siblings were found in their 40s, so I was game to find out anything. Turns out, there were no big surprises beyond being vaguely related to Mozart’s librettist, and well, maybe a few others I'm trying to figure out.

I wanted the loose days of yore, but it’s been a bit of a snaggletooth summer, imperfect and not letting loose in the ways I would like it to. My son will spend nearly a third of it away. Camp and rivers and songs and memories that don’t include me. Which is, of course, exactly what I want for him and exactly what hurts a little. kAmx H2?E65 DF>>6C E@ 4FE =@@D6[ H96C6 52JD DEC6E49 E96>D6=G6D @FE :?E@ 2 7F== J2H?] x’G6 925 2 76H DF>>6CD =:<6 E92E H:E9 >J D@?[ 2?5 x 42? 4@F?E @?

This spring break, we decided on a loose theme: old-fashioned toys. Just a tilt, really. A mother’s attempt to pass the increasingly siphoned-out time by hand. A deck of cards. kAmp 324<J2C5 EC2>A@=:?6]k^Am kAmp ;F>A C@A6]k^Am kAmp?5 @?6 G6CJ >@56C? 6=64EC@?:4 E@J[ :>>65:2E6=J D24C:7:465 E@ 2 !@?56C@D2]k^Am kAm%96 DE:4< 7=:A :D 2 D>2== 92?596=5 82>6 E92E 366AD 2?5 <66AD EC24< @7 9@H >2?J 7=:AD J@F >2<6] xE H2D =2F?4965 3J >J AC6E66? @? 52J @?6 2?5 =@5865 DEC2:89E :?E@ 2 DAC:?8 A:?6] r=62?