2.7
The pagoda crumbled with less noise than a sand castle.
Julienne is told they are back in Hong Kong and though she does not know where this exact spot is—a low-end apartment, laundry strung out from window to window like dead moths—the heaviness of her body lets her know heaven is far behind. There's blood flecking her sleeves. She has already forgotten what it is like to be brave, to have said and done half the things she did.
She flinches when Olivia tries to touch her. Shutting her eyes—it seems necessary somehow—she whispers a name. Almost instantly Hau Ngai takes her into familiar arms, and then home.
The bathroom tiles and shampoo bottles look like alien landscape, and habit alone keeps Julienne lucid through the shower. In the living room she deposits her head in Hau Ngai's
