Northstar Vale ladies and gentleman, this is mambo no. 5

Call her a coward, but Easy didn't love running into wolves from her past — family members most especially. It was one thing to take a deep breath and stroll into a family gathering, but another to be faced, suddenly, with a quagmire of sin and neglect that separated her from this almost-stranger. Most of it had not been perpetrated by her, but she couldn't help but feel sometimes like she should have done something, never mind that she'd been little more than a child herself. She should've done something to keep them together, or she should at least have looked harder once she had the wherewithal to do so.

But this one looked like she'd grown up well. It eased some of the innate, inherited guilt, even if the look on her face sent another sharp spike of regret through her chest. Perhaps she shouldn't have said anything.

"Easy Morningside," she said, answering at once as if to make up for all the years she had missed. "My father — they were brothers. And Pema — she was..."

She'd been there for her when her mother had disappeared. It seemed in poor taste to say so when Pema hadn't been around for much of this one's childhood, either. Not the way she remembered it, at least.

Her voice was quiet, now. Subdued.

"You were just little the last time I saw you," she said. "And I was only a girl. I don't think we'd even been introduced — but I peeked. And I could smell you on her coat."