“She told me that, for one year, when she was a teenager,

They had lived somewhere else, but not Shanghai.

Then I asked if older sister lived nearby.

She considered the question, then pointed to the window,

‘Older sister is on a hillside outside the city.’

Instead of anger, Weng—instead of desire, I felt something else,

a sort of lightness, and truly hoped she was with a devoted
husband, children too, even grandchildren,
a house full of voices like a forest in spring.