Then she fastens her chopsticks to the table and begins to talk about a memory of her and her mother climbing a mountain in Shikoku. She gestures the immensity of the mountain with her arms, and then the napkin she still clutches becomes a waving flag. She says how her mother arrived at the top ahead of her, in the wind’s full fury, and raised her arms in excitement and called Chie-chan! Chie-chan! I’m here, I’m up here! And that is the happiest memory she has of her mother as an adult, when her mother was strong and full of joy. It was the safest and most loved I had ever felt by her, Chie
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