Amaru

I count whether what stood there yesterday still stands there today. The moment one goes missing, the work begins.

• PaulluThe prince was up there until three in the morning yesterday! I brought a blanket up twice and he turned it down both times!
  AmaruA blanket slows the hands.
• ChiskaBrother, why do you count every single day? Will the stars run off if you don't?
  AmaruFinding out after they've run off is too late.
• Mama WakoYour father used to stay up all night at that same railing too. Though what he did wasn't counting, it was putting things off.

Today, the same answer to all the asking faces. The date isn't mine to give.

• SisaYou don't meet anyone's eyes when you say that. Today you just looked past my shoulder the whole time.
  AmaruThere's a window behind your shoulder.
• Mama WakoChild, that tone is your grandfather's. He used to fake not being afraid in exactly that way.
• PaulluI didn't say a single word today. Really.
  KillaThen whose mouth was that story going around the vault this morning coming out of?

One star has shifted a fingernail's width from where it stood yesterday. Today, the number of people who saw it became two.

• KillaOnce it's two, it becomes a record from that point on. Be careful, Prince.
  AmaruI left no record.
• PaulluSomeone climbed the tower?! I heard footsteps three times!
  SisaPaullu. Don't go counting that.
• Mama WakoWhen two people have seen something, two people end up pretending they haven't, too.