Victoria had decided to skip the weekly Graduate Research Symposium after class and had returned to her office for a breather. She still had a few papers to grade and rather than give her interaction with Braden any more thought, she’d thrown herself into those. She had finished marking up one paper when her phone trilled with a Katherine Reese ringtone. Her body immediately tensed as she considered ignoring it. No, it was their weekly call. If she missed it, she’d never hear the end of it.

Victoria steeled herself before pressing the answer button. “Ma’am.”

“Did you read the article I sent you?” Katherine asked, pushing straight through.

“Huh?”

“Beg your pardon,” her mother corrected. “Huh, is used by low-rent people who don’t have proper command of the English language.”

Victoria squeezed her eyes shut and fought the urge to remind her mother that she was in fact an English professor who understood how the rigid class structures of grammar subjugated the underprivileged. “Which article are you referring to?”

“The one I posted on your Facebook,” Katherine said impatiently.

“Mother, I don’t exactly have time to be on Facebook right now,” she said, wedging the phone between her cheek and shoulder. She minimized a student paper and got on the internet. Victoria wasn’t quite sure if she even remembered her login information. “Could you just tell me what the article was about?”

“Scientists are saying that female fertility isn’t on the strict clock they once thought it was on. Apparently, women in their fifties can still have healthy births. I think they referenced Janet Jackson’s latest pregnancy...”

Victoria stopped listening after that. Her mother posted an article about fertility on her public wall? She logged in incorrectly twice before she had access to her Facebook page. G.D. it! There it was, plain as day, in black and white: a link to the article with the additional comment, “YOU STILL HAVE TIME (winky-face emoji) BUT DON’T PUSH IT!!!” Friends had already reacted with likes. The first comment was from her grandmother: “I had your mother at 37.”

“...we all know that her first child was by that DeBarge boy. That girl would be about your age actually. Anyway, she did it and god only knows how. She probably did the IVF treatments like Brenda’s daughter did. But the point is, your ovaries might have a fighting chance. Isn’t that exciting news?”