Chapter 22
cat pounces and leaps – daring!
friends join, chasing hares, claws sheathed
“Pickled kumquats?”
Francine Sumisu placed a small bowl in front of me on the kitchen table, already knowing the answer. Jericha’s mother had been like my own growing up and she knew I couldn’t resist the combination of sweetness and tart citrus. She poured me a glass of cool water and sat down, plucking one of the orange treasures and placing it on her own tongue, clucking delightedly.
“I never tire of these,” she said.
“Nor I,” I agreed. I’d stopped at Francine’s first thing upon my arrival in Prime. Jericha had asked me to carry some yendar home to her mother, the extra currency always welcome now that Francine had retired from teaching. She had a pension, but it barely covered her monthly bill
