“She watched him trot to the bathroom naked and thought of how strange his body looked. His four hairy legs were twice the size of her arms.”

“She wonders what curse this is, to swing from life to life, grief to grief, with no control.”

“He said he made the cranes in order to make a wish, though he didn’t tell you what it was, only that it didn’t come true.”

“Shit. I feel like I’m whispering all of this when I should really be shouting.”

At Dee’s funeral there would be wailing and crying and music and words, all of it insufficient, impotent, too late. Too many families, too many mothers I never met until that moment, and how do you introduce yourself, then? “I’m Mr. Orie; I taught Dee twice a week for his woodshop elective.”

‘‘He’s jumping bail,’ Julia said. ‘It’s illegal. Doesn’t anyone care?’”

“‘This land isn’t empty, it’s full of ghosts, you just can’t see them.' She says it flat, matter of fact, no judgement at all.”

“I feared the unfamiliar that winged within my own female form.”

“When I open the door, I face the drooping sun. The light in my face is bright, not warm.”