sent from: London, UK. destination: San Francisco, California, USA

Zaah is the quiet one. She loves to read, the world is as much in her head as outside. She has friends, many, just not as many flesh and blood. She wades into the river in her dark speedo swimsuit. She swims across where the current flows fast and into the reeds, where she floats and paddles and imagines a vast ocean and a boat and a sky of animal clouds. Zain, her sister, is a pink bonbon. A princess suit, a skirt, little pink shoes. If she could have had a palanquin and parade of trumpeting elephants, she would have. Everyone knows the water temperature, and what she wants, because she tells them. The fast water between her and the next rock frightens her, she demands help. She grasps the hand of a nearby adult and swings into the current. She is suspended as the water rushes around her, frozen between exhilaration and fear. She waits to know what the water will do next.