Chapter 5
My eyes widened in surprise when I entered my mother’s private room at the clinic to find a visitor already sleeping beside her, sharing her bed.
I padded quietly across the room, and took a seat in the chair next to the bed, watching the sleeping pair as their bodies rose and fell in unison, breathing in, and breathing out. The small, black squirrel’s tail curled around his body like a blanket while he snored. My mother breathed soundlessly.
“Miko,” I whispered gently, stroking his head with one finger. “Wake up.”
His eyes opened slowly and came into focus.
“Siri? What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I smiled.
He yawned, daintily stretching his arms.
“I like visiting your mother. She has nice dreams, and it’s quiet here. Sometimes those birds outsi
