Bramblepoint Before planet Earth was here, I was riding a light year.

She noted the way the woman beheld her son with such soft eyes. Towhee’s own eyes remained rather hard, though they flickered with something like mirth at Eydis’s question. She sensed the boy himself about to correct her but she quickly shot him a quelling look.

No, she answered, he’s just some kid I found in a bush. She shrugged, then in the very next breath posed her own question: You live around here, Eydis?