You are listening to a Clarksworld magazine podcast with your host and narrator, Kate Baker.

Greetings, Clarksworld citizens. I hope this podcast finds you incredibly well.

This is our first story for the month of November. Thank you for sticking around.

Thank you, whether this is your first story. And most of all, thank you for your ongoing support.

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Our story is titled Mom Heart and is by Will McIntosh.

Will McIntosh is a Hugo Award winner and finalist for the Nebula and other SFF awards.

His novels include Defenders, Love Minus 80, and Soft Apocalypse. Along with nine novels,

Will has published around 50 short stories. He was a psychology professor before turning to

writing full-time and lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife and their twins.

So my dear listener, I hope that you can sit back, relax, and let me tell you a story.

The front door banged open.

Daddy! Daddy!

Blue it wailed. I rushed to blue it. Blue it's eyes were wet. Karina hung back,

blank eyed as blue it bolted forward. Ray can't call mommy dead.

I wrapped blue it in a hug. I'm sorry.

My voice was muffled my face pressed into blue its hair. That was not a nice thing to say.

...