Gigil

"Don't," said Marisol's daughter, without looking up.

"I'm not doing anything."

"You've got the face on."

"I have no face on."

"Ma. You have the face on."

Marisol looked down at her granddaughter, who was seven weeks old and asleep and had a cheek on her like a mango, and felt the whole of her right hand cramp with the effort of not doing anything at all.

---

It is not affection. That is what nobody gets right.

Affection is soft. Affection makes you want to stroke a head and speak in a low voice. Marisol had that too and it was a perfectly manageable feeling.