I closed my book and looked at him. “So, Kota, how old are you?”
“Nine years, four months, and two days old,” Kota replied. “How old are you?”
I smiled. “Honestly, with the time differences in all of these worlds, I have no idea. I was thirty-two years old when I left home, and that was months ago.”
“Why did you leave?”
“Well, there were some men who were chasing me, and I needed to find my mother.”
“Grandma told me when she left that she would come back, but she was gone a long time.”
I nodded. “The same men who were chasing me had taken her. I only just found her. The first thing she wanted to do was come back here to see you.”
“If she came back before, she’d be where my mother is now, so maybe it’s good that she didn’t.”
“Tell me about your mother,” I said.
“She makes this soap
