The news was doing animal videos, so Jan decided to make pancakes. They came off golden-brown, and the humidity was low enough to open the front door and let a flowery breeze through the kitchen. Jan sang over the stove, flipping the last pancake and swallowing phrase to phrase. The cinnamon made her salivate. And she knew—this was the best part of the morning—that they were all for her. The pancakes. The kids were at school.

Jan ate, washed up, and folded the laundry. Leaving Brendan’s pile in his room, she found a pair of panties on his desk. They fell between nude and lavender, a cotton blend soft as lilies, and their most notable attribute was that they did not belong to Brendan. Or Jan.

She’d thought he was too young for girls and, though she loved him dearly, he wouldn’t attract them with those teeth. It wasn’t the teeth, per se, but his embarrassment of them that gave people the wrong idea. He smiled with closed lips and spoke in contortions so no one would see the double-stacked incisors. His efforts made him look shifty and toothless. A fifth-grade methhead.

Well, thought Jan, some Florida-born saint must have seen past it.

Well, not much of a saint.

Jan told her husband about the panties. “He’s growing up,” she said, dabbing her eyes.

“Sure is.” Her husband went out to wash the car.

Jan sighed. Watching kids grow was the hardest part of parenting. She determined to miss none of Brendan’s milestones. When he came home, she waved the panties like a Welcome banner and congratulated him.

He blushed. “I didn’t do anything.”

“I know, Sweetie. But you can tell me anything.”

“I…I…I was only cleaning.”

“It’s okay. Self-esteem is the steepest battle.” She had read it off a refrigerator magnet they sold at Curves.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s okay to finally smile.”

Brendan went crimson and covered his mouth.

“You’re not hopeless,” she said.

Brendan’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t know why I took them.”

“Well I should hope they were given.”

He looked at her funny.

She looked at him funny. “What were you kids doing in our room?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I found them in the car.”