It is 6pm. The early evening sky is wearing a flowing iridescent burnt-orange dress that spans the sky. It radiates so, that even the air particles seem to have been tainted the same orange, giving the evening a post-nuclear fallout look.

Two women stand at a bus stop with a little girl between them. They are holding her hands. From afar, and if you squint, the three of them form the most perfect letter ‘M’.

The little girl must be about six or seven. As they stand there, she shares her upward gaze equally with the two women. If she looks up at one for ten seconds, she turns and looks up at the other for ten seconds. Each woman reciprocates by looking down and smiling at the little girl when it is her turn to be looked up to.

The older of the women, the sturdier looking of the two, has long straight black hair that she has slicked back and tied into a tight bun with surgical precision. Her face too has make-up applied with the same clinical treatment. It is not that she is wearing too much make-up, she has just applied enough for it to be noticeable. She has dark skin and a petit but solid build. Given the right circumstances, she might be attractive.

The younger woman is not significantly younger. She could very well be the very same age as the older looking woman but her unmade face and wild curly light brown hair make her look younger. She is wearing jeans, a festive blouse and Christian Dior sunglasses, all of which sum to the possibility that she is younger. She does not stand as convincingly as the other woman and occasionally, she shifts her weight from one leg to the other as though standing were laborious for her. She has lighter skin and is the shapelier of the two.

And between these two different women, there is the little girl.

The most striking thing about the little girl is that not only is she the physical mid-point between these women; she looks as though she were the quotient of the sum of the women divided by two. Her hair is wild and curly but it is as black as a moonless night and is tied loosely and neatly behind her head. She has a serious face but a youthful spunk to her. Her skin too is the compromise between the dark skin of the older woman and the light skin of the younger one.

Biology aside, it seems reasonable that these two women have reproduced and the little girl is the result of their mating. But of course, biology cannot be set aside. Although in these times of pregnant men and liberated women, mathematics seems to be the only irrefutable truth.

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