This had not been the triumphant return that the mother had been picturing on her trip back to Paradise Falls. She had been growing sicker by the day, and nothing that Chan tried to do seemed to bring her any relief. She thought she was still doing a pretty good job of keeping it together when others were around, but when she was alone she was miserable. At this point she could barely hear and the pain deep in her ear was ever present.

It throbbed, it shot pain deep inside her brain as if it were an icicle wedged in there, distracting and awful. Every day she felt more tired, drained from the pretending and the deep discomfort. It felt like everything that she still wanted to do was slipping away from her and she was clawing desperately to get it back.

That included watching her children and only grandchild grow up. Atara already a teen, and Ryder old enough to have a child of his own. Today the one she sought was the youngest, Indi. A girl she knew but had yet to spend much one on one time with. Today she needed to remedy this, even if it was early enough that the sun was only just beginning to rise.