Picture Frame Missing Glass

"I saved a bunch of pictures last night that I was going to throw out."

"Okay, excellent."

"Well, when I was doing it, I found this absolutely fabulous photo of my mother I would like framed."

"And how big is it?"

"It's actually an 8x10. It's a picture of her at my wedding getting down to some music all alone on the dance floor. Her eyes are squeezed tight, her hands are spread at her sides, her knees are bent, and her butt's sticking out. She looks so happy in it. You see, she finally came out of her shell at my wedding. My father had died two months before and his death really changed her. After my wedding, she was still different, but at least now she was happy, but still very aloof from us, her children. If we asked her anything, a lot of the time she would just smile and then walk away. And the way she smiled...it was like she was looking at us for the first time. I secretly followed her one time out of pure frustration. She walked into the backyard and just peered over the back fence at the droning highway for a long time. It was quite a ways away, but you could still hear the traffic zooming past. It was the President George W. Bush Turnpike in Texas. The cars zoomed on it all day and all night and she just stared and stared and stared. I finally called out to her, and you know what? When she turned to look at me she had that same confounding smile on her face, even though her eyes sparkled when they recognized me. She didn't say anything. She never says anything."

"Sounds like you love your mother very much."

"Yes, I do. And I like this frame very much."

"It's missing the glass."

"What do you mean the glass? What glass?"

"The clear, protective glass that goes over the picture."

"Do I need it?"

"Not necessarily. Just make sure nothing gets on it."