Which passage from “Child Waiting” best highlights the story’s theme? (A)Her mother is pulling the drawstring of a skirt with a hole in it where her stomach pokes through. “Three more months to go,” she says. The bassinet casts shadows on the floor of the child’s room. Pink is for girls, blue for boys, but the blanket inside is light green, and will cover the baby who will be born in a hot summer month.
(B)Her mother, who’s pregnant again, talking with friends who are laughing while holding their coffee cups in the afternoon, sometimes all of them talking at once until time for the husbands to arrive, then the front door opening and closing.
(C)“This is how you spell Mississippi: M I S S I S S I P P I.” While ironing, she teaches words to the child. When all the clothes are done they sit on the porch where a trellis of morning glories blocks traffic. Her grandmother plays the harmonica and makes it chug like a train.
(D)During December a crate arrives and once pried loose reveals a doll glued to a stand. There’s a butterfly in her tight black hair. The dress is sashed red to the waist, the limbs won’t move, and the eyes won’t close. Who wants a doll that can’t be cuddled? Still, the child is forced to write her mother and, until I love and miss you, every word is what she’s been warned against, a lie.