Come closer, she whispers from the doorway. Come, she holds a finger to her lips, You may have my story for a coin, a loaf of bread, a promise to whisper. There was a country, she begins, her voice low as cities forgotten beneath the water. We look away, we are ready for travel. No, she says, not like that, begins again: Once upon a time in a country.... No, no—In the country of __________ & ___________. In the country of Remember, of Rock and Sand, of Silence and Blue Ash. Say you remember. We shake our heads. No. No, we say. We turn, we see the parting in the trees. Come back, she calls. Come back for the rest of the story. No, no, we say. Not today, we can never remember.