"In the early days of our third pandemic spring, as tempers frayed and the impatience to return to something resembling “normal” spiked ever higher, I spotted my niece’s icon in the row of tiny circles at the top of my Instagram feed. I’m not a mother but I am an aunt six times over. My two sisters did the procreating. My decision not to have children was a mixture of choice and contingency. Then again, I never played with dolls. I didn’t dream of progeny. I’ve always longed to live close to the other-than-human."