Ama had used many different ways to explain it to me. When the few who were left had nothing else, they had to return to the way of knowing. It is how they survived. But this knowing that crouched in my gut felt nothing like wings. Instead, it was something dark and heavy, squeezing each knot of my spine one at a time, like steps getting closer. Those few days would come and go, and Jafir would not be there. I felt it in the emptiest part of my soul.
