[leo. north star. layre teaches kaede something each time they are together. she has come to treasure this. her wrists feel strangely emptied. her children are leaving her. she has created a fiction which gives them pride and status, a half-truth. but this man, he holds the reality. kaede wonders but does not speak. in mandarin, in the tongue he is learning, she points and says the word for lion. what else? she asks him, eyes shining in the soft light.]

leo.

north star.

layre teaches kaede something each time they are together. she has come to treasure this.

her wrists feel strangely emptied. her children are leaving her. she has created a fiction which gives them pride and status, a half-truth.

but this man, he holds the reality.

kaede wonders but does not speak.

in mandarin, in the tongue he is learning, she points and says the word for lion. what else? she asks him, eyes shining in the soft light.