Story of the Week

Laurie Baker grew up in Boston and received a BA from Williams College and an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. She wrote “Go in Peace, Not in Pieces” for the short story collection She Is Quick and Curious and Playful and Strong, curated by designer Kate Spade. Baker lives in Medfield, Massachusetts, with her husband and two daughters.

Mother of Hope

A Story

by Laurie Baker

Ambition Masemole had a name no one in America would want. I thought this when she told me she was pregnant. She was only fifteen, big and slack, with a fat, sleepy face. She didn’t actually look pregnant, but her heft, dense more than soft, made it hard to tell; she was flesh without curve. She had hard, black eyes and heavy eyelids creased with fat. “Yikes,” I thought, and remembered that her African name was Lesego, meaning “luck”—another piss-poor choice, after all.

Want to read the rest?
Please login.
New to Narrative? sign up.
It's easy and free.
The password field is case sensitive. Account & Password Help.
Joining Narrative gives you FREE access to thousands of stories, poems and essays. It’s easy:
PLEASE ENTER A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS.
PLEASE NOTE: We are discontinuing our support of Microsoft-related addresses, including msn.com, live.com, outlook.com, and hotmail.com, and we ask that you use an alternative address, such as gmail.com, yahoo.com, fastmail.com, comcast.net, verizon.com, icloud.com, or other.

We have found Microsoft-related email addresses to be sometimes inconsistent in terms of delivering messages, and we want to make sure that you can access your account and reliably receive messages that you have requested.
Email Preferences
Email Preferences