The Mother with the Star Tattoo

Everybody’s Son and the Mother with the Star Tattoo


They saw the trouble coming, but did not immediately realize what it was.

The first time it was an old woman who interrupted them on a walk.  Mother Jones was pushing Johnny in the stroller.  The old woman smiled at Johnny’s mother and glanced into the stroller to admire the baby.  And then it happened.

“You stole my baby!” she screamed and tried to pull the stroller from Mother Jones.  Luckily there were other people around and they quickly helped separate the old woman from the stroller, but she kept yelling and yelling, “She stole my baby!  Give me back my baby!” until the police came and took her away.

Another day, at the mall, a little boy, about six year’s old, looked at Johnny and said, quietly, “That’s my brother.” The little boy then looked at his own mother and asked her, “Why is my brother is that lady’s stroller?”  But Mother Jones quickly wheeled the stroller away before the other boy’s mother could look into the stroller

There were more incidents.  By the time Johnny was nine months old, Mother Jones knew she could never let anyone else see him.  She also knew this was not a sustainable way to raise a child.

Even so, she kept Johnny away from other people for another year.  And then she did something quite smart, actually.  She searched on the Internet for a blind pediatrician.  She found one, only fifty miles from their home, and went to see her.

“People imprint on my baby,” she said when she arrived.  “Or I think they do.”  Mother Jones explained that whoever saw Johnny believed that the child was theirs. 

Weeks later, after many tests, the doctor gave Mother Jones even more news. “Your baby,” said the doctor, “has prosopagnosia. Face blindness. And quite acute.  He can recognize gender and age.  But nothing more.”

“What does that mean for him?  For us?” asked Mother Jones.

“Johnny can no more tell you apart, physically, from any other woman in the world. Even if the other woman were Indian, Hispanic, or Chinese.”

Mother Jones took Johnny and this news home with her. It was not what she wanted to hear.  She decided, again, quite smartly, to keep Johnny away from other people entirely.  When she was forced to take him outside, such as when she went shopping, she wrapped his face entirely, even putting dark glasses on him. Though other shoppers tsked tsked at her in the store, she knew this was better than what could happen if they did see his face.  They would claim that she had stolen their child and, since Johnny couldn’t tell anyone apart, there might be a chance he would point to the wrong person when a policeman asked him which woman was his real mother.

Three years later, when Johnny was five, however, tragedy struck. 

Johnny slipped outside the gate when Mother Jones was gardening in their backyard.  The first person to pass him on the street, a man in his forties, took one glance at Johnny and declared, “How did you get out of our house?” He scooped up Johnny and took him to his home, which was three blocks away. 

In the house was a mother; who immediately recognized Johnny as her son, and two teenage girls, who knew, without doubt, that Johnny was their little brother.  The lack of a bedroom or boy’s clothing or boy’s toys did not sway their full and complete belief that Johnny was and had been their brother since he was born.  More curiously, they called him by different names and even this didn’t make them think anything was amiss.

Johnny’s face blindness also didn’t help, since the mother, though being a different color and having very distinct facial features from his own mother, looked exactly the same to Johnny.  He called her “Mother.”

Of course, they had no idea that others would react to Johnny in the same manner.  Later that afternoon, the whole family drove to the mall to get Johnny (now called “Brother”) some clothes and toys. 

They didn’t make it anywhere near the mall.

As soon as they stopped at a stoplight, three people ran from separate cars to get their child back.  Imagine if you suddenly looked at the car next to you and saw that one of your children was in the back seat … and you didn’t know any of the other people in the car?

Soon there were many dozens of people, all yelling and pulling at Johnny and at others.  All trying to get their kidnapped child back.  It was a wonder that no one was killed. The police were no help, either, since each one as sure as everyone else that Johnny was their own son. And, as you now expect, he called each one of them “Mother” or Father” or “Sister” or “Brother” since he could not tell any of them apart.

Mother Jones heard the news and rushed to the police office.  She had two things the others Mothers didn’t: a birth certificate for Johnny and a distinct smell.  As soon as she got near Johnny, he buried his head into her clothes and breathed deeply.  This was his real Mother.  He couldn’t see it, but he could smell it.  Still, though, it took Mother Jones much effort and grief before she and Johnny found themselves at home, alone, again.

The only person she could trust was the blind doctor, who gave Mother Jones some advice, “Mark yourself so Johnny can tell you apart from other people.”

That is why Mother Jones has a small, cobalt blue star tattoo on right side of her face, just below her cheekbone. “Look for this star,” she told Johnny. “This means ‘Mother’ and nothing else.” 

Since you know what happened next in Johnny’s life, I do not need to say any more. As you know, it did not take long for the star tattoo to become fashionable, which is why Mother Jones and Johnny invented a new symbol.  I’d tell you what it is but I don’t know it.  They never told anyone. 

The End




         Prosopagnosia (also known a face blindness) can be quite severe, as in this story, where an individual is unable recognize their own parents.  It can also be somewhat mild, where an individual must rely on non-facial clues (hair, clothing, gait, etc.) to recognize long-time associates and is unable follow movie plots since he or she cannot track characters from scene to scene.

As far as I know, Johnny’s outward kin recognition ability doesn’t exist.  But odder things do, so you never know.