I did not enjoy looking at her, exactly.

But I did not look away, either.

And Steven — my son — sank down onto his knees on the cobblestones in front of me.

Actually onto his knees.

“Mom,” he said, and his voice was a broken thing.

“Mom, please.

Where are we supposed to go?”

I took a slow, deep breath of the cold morning air, and I pulled my coat a little tighter around me, and I looked down at my son kneeling on the stones, and I did not feel hatred.