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"I’es of the rough-hewn table, re myself not to think too deeply of Ky, or I’ll break down and be no good to him at all "Hunter and Eli--they’re fine?"

"They are," Anna says

"I’ve wanted to coht," Anna says "I understand"

Rebecca htly and Anna takes the hint She smiles at me "After I’m finished, I’ll tell Eli that you’re here He’ll want to see you And so will Hunter"

"Thank you," I say, not quite believing that I’ve met her This is Anna, the wos I saw in the cave When she begins reading her list, I can’t tune out the sound of her voice

"Mariposa lily," Anna says to Rebecca "Paintbrush flowers, but only in se to season, and ephedra for tea"

Words as beautiful as songs And I realize why I knew Anna’s voice It sounds the smallest bit like my mother’s I pull a scrap of paper toward ht already know so the her the cure

"It’s time for you to rest for a little while" Rebecca presses a piece of flatbread wrapped in cloth into my hand The bread is warm and the smell of it makes my stomach rumble They make their own food here What would that be like? What if I had ti me a canteen "You should eat while you visit hi, of course

As I walk down the path to the infirrow in all the places where people don’t walk; purple and red and blue and yellow The clouds, a stirring and startling pink, soar in the sky above the trees and peaks of the mountains And a conviction comes to me in this ly

When I arrive, I sit down next to Ky and look at hiue don’t close their eyes I wish that they did Ky’s look flat and gray; not the colors I’reen I putthe smooth expanse of skin and the understructure of bone He seeood," I say to one of theis already eh?"

She checks her notes "This patient should still have one working"

I don’tAfter ato attach to his line She seems harried There are only two medics on duty "Do you need more help in here?" I ask

"No," she says sharply "Leyna and Oker only want those of us withto ith the still"

After she finishes, I sit next to Ky and restof how alive he was on the Hill, in the canyons, and, for a one I think of how I spent all that ti out the color of his eyes when I started to fall in love with hieable and difficult to put into one finite set, one clear description

The door opens and I turn, expecting to see so to tell me that my time’s up, that I need to return to work And I don’t want to leave It’s strange When I was sorting, I felt certain it was theWhen I’ with the still matters most

But it’s not someone from the research lab It’s Anna

"May I come in?" Anna asks After she’s washed her hands and put on her face mask, she comes toward me I stand up, ready to offer her my chair, but she shakes her head and sits on the floor near the bed It’s strange to be looking down at her

"So this is Ky," she says He’s turned on his side and she looks into his eyes and touches his hand "Eli wants to see hiood idea?"

"I don’t know," I say It ood idea for Eli to co to hiood for Eli? "You would know better than I" It’s hard to say, but of course it’s true I only knew Eli for days She has known him for months

"Eli told me that Ky’s father was a trader," Anna says "Eli didn’t know his name, but he remembered that Ky told hie"

"Yes," I say "Do you reet him His name was Sione Finnow I helped him learn to write it Of course, he wanted to learn his wife’s name first" She sht her those paintbrushes even when he couldn’t afford paint"

I wonder if Ky can hear this

"Sione traded for Ky, too," Anna says

"What do you mean?" I ask

"Soue pilots," Anna says "The ones who flew people out of the Society Sione did that, once"

"He tried to trade to get Ky out?" I ask, surprised

"No," she says "Sione executed a trade on another’s behalf to bring soes We farmers never assisted in any of that, of course But Sione told me about it"