8
Kaiya left home before Tilda woke. The sun sat low in the east, making the streets and sides of buildings shimmer in its early morning glow. The quiet of dawn lingered, and Kaiya kept her ears pricked for any sound other than the pad and echo of her own footsteps. There was no one else around her on the shadowed boulevard. Only when the central bridge came into view and she turned onto the riverside road did she see anyone. Early morning joggers, relaxed-looking police officers, an old man with a walking stick sitting on a bench, staring out over the river, arm extended as if he were used to someone else sitting beside him.
The river flowed along, free of the debris that had once littered it years before her birth. Kaiya walked over to the railings and stared down into the water, the e
