"Mom, I want a baby brother," asks Joseph to mother.
"Okay son, let us see if your dad and I can give you a baby brother," mother said.
Joseph is the second sibling of 3 children of Mr. and Mrs. Gloria. He is constantly out of the house to go to the neighborhood to play. But mother always scolded him.
"Where are you from Joseph?" Asked mother.
"From the neighborhood" replied Joseph with bowed head.
"What are you doing there? Playing? You can stay in the house and play with your siblings" mother continued.
"I don't want to play with girls mom, I want to play with a brother" he pouted.
Mother can't do anything because at some point he can't give what Joseph wanted. She is worried and shares this whole thing with her husband.
A few months later. Mother is pregnant with the fourth child, that's me. When Joseph received the news he was so happy and never gone to the neighborhood again. He always stays with his mother and plays with her small bump.
"Mom, is it a baby brother?" he asked.
"We don't know yet Joseph" mom said.
"I wish it's a baby brother," he said.
Every night mother hears Joseph's prayer of a baby brother. And every day Joseph tells her how he wants and prays it's a baby brother. Mother doesn't want to make Joseph sad so she always tells him every time he as her that yes, it's a baby boy.
When the time of her labor had come. Joseph is so happy and excited to see his little brother. He stays with her up until the baby came out and by the time the baby cried, Joseph immediately asked,
"Is it baby brother mom?"
"No. It's a baby sister" mother hesitantly replied.
Joseph did not respond right away and touch mother's tummy and said,
"Is baby brother did not come out yet?"
Mother finds Joseph's innocence fun at the same time hurt breaking. She doesn't know what to say to Joseph's hopeful face that he couldn't have a brother because the new baby is a girl. But in the end, he tells Joseph the truth for Joseph is a smart kid and will know the truth later. When his mother told Joseph the truth, he feels disappointed. He looked at the baby and said, "Mom, it's a boy look?" Mother immediately look at the baby and where Joseph had pointed out. "Look, the baby had a mustache, you tricked me, mom. I knew it" he happily said.
Mother laughed at Joseph's innocence and not argued with him anymore. She just let Joseph what he wants to believe. Every day, Joseph calls her baby sister, a baby brother. They grew together and play together with boys' stuff. They get a long very well.
Joseph is right, his baby sister had a mustache that is so evident below her nose that is not supposed to be in a girl's face. But mother believed that it appears to be that way because of how Joseph prayed and really wanted to have a baby brother but is a baby sister in the end.
Mother told me how the neighborhood get confused about my gender because of my mustache when I am still a baby. She always teases me that I am a mistaken baby girl and that I supposed to be a baby boy.