VII.

Where Birds Fly to in the Winter…

The evening came unnoticeably, settling us in her hospitable cool comfort, and we dreamily looked at the lights shining above us. The stars twinkled, animated by our attention. A star would glow brighter here and there in order to impress us, but the others quickly overshadowed it, with their light just as bright and strong. So they blinked on the sky, their legs and arms spread; one could easily mistake them for shiny little sky ghosts with small triangular heads. A flock of wild geese flew above and cried loudly to greet us, but said nothing more as they were in a hurry. Suddenly Rosa’s face became serious.

After a while she asked me, “Do you know where birds of passage fly to in the winter?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, and was silent. I was ashamed of not knowing.

“I also do not know where. But I know that they go back home.” She became silent again. “Someday I will go back home, too,” she said, absorbed in her thoughts.

“But you are at home!” I was bewildered.

“Father says that our real home is not here, where we are at the moment, but somewhere out there among the stars, where mother is now.”

“Don’t you like it here?” I asked her, feeling a bit offended. Rosa laughed.

“Of course I like it,” and she turned her head toward the stars.

“Rosa, if you decide to go home for the winter, will you come back to us again after that? Birds of passage always do so, don’t they?”

Rosa nodded. “I would very much like to.”

“But why do you want to go?” I just couldn’t stop being interested, after all.

“That’s what the doctor said to dad. He said that I would soon go back home. I heard them while they were whispering at the door. I do not know why adults think that children don’t understand when they whisper. As if they were invisible when they whispered.”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Mum is always yelling at me, so it is hard to not understand her.”

Rosa laughed with that wonderful, melodious voice that could make a flower blossom from the ground even in wintertime. And I grew sad, really sad indeed—I did not know why. Now I know. But then, I still didn’t understand.