Kalon (noun): beauty that is more than skin deep

She gingerly tugged her shirt over her head, staring with a sigh into the mirror.

The dark circles under her eyes have sunken further in the past few weeks, but thanks to the restful night of sleep, they looked a tad better. There were new lines creasing the once-smooth skin of her face, but those seemed permanent.

The woman practiced a smile, then fell into a natural frown.

Another sigh was rising in her chest, when a tiny figure barreled into her.

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“Hi mommy!” Her two-year-old daughter embraced her as far as her tiny arms could allow.

“Oh, hello there!” said the woman, immediately snapping into a cheerful tone.

“Whatcha doing?” The little girl asked, her eyes landing on her mother’s exposed midriff. “Ooh? What are those?”

The woman froze.

Her daughter was pointing at her stretch marks.

“Ah, that’s… that’s where you were, when you were in my belly!” She successfully sounded gentle, although she felt a pinch in her heart. “It’s not very pretty, but—”

“Wah!” The tiny girl threw herself onto her mother again, wrapping her arms especially around the ridges of her mother’s belly. “It’s okay. I love them. I love you.”

As if something snapped inside her, the woman’s eyes began to overflow. Lifting her head so that her child couldn’t see, she whispered, “...I love you too.”