The word rose from the bird, a warm sensation, and my lips trembled in empathy. I didn’t cry easily. It was a badge of honor, of toughness. I was a slip of a girl, a woman with little to offer and nothing to say, but I had my dignity, and tears were undignified. Home, he said again, and I felt the urgency and the sorrow, as if he’d lost his and wanted me to know. I don’t have a home either, I said to the eagle, and closed my eyes to deny the wet that wanted to spill over.
