"An hour of what?"

"Watching you play."

"Iiiiiis it interesting? I just mostly put blocks on top of each other and read. I wouldn't watch me."

"Once you spring the way grownups feel about their children will make more sense to you."

"What if I don't?"

"Then it will never make any sense to you."

"Well that's no good, I want things to make sense."

"Do the doctors think she might not?" asks Nolime.

       "She seems perfectly healthy - small for her age, might be five."

"Also I'm an alien."

"Who told you that?"

"Afen, because he couldn't place the language."

Nolime laughs. Afen glares at him.

"Just the accent, not the language, we dunno what language I would've spoken before."

"That was not a very nice thing to say, that you were an alien."

"...why, is being an alien bad?"

"Not at all, but expecting not to be able to spring sounds sad and lonely."

"I dunno if I'm a kind of alien who springs or not."

Kan's parents are glaring disapprovingly at Afen.

"Do you want to show your grandparents your block tower?"

"Okay." She leads them to the courtyard.

Afen quietly seethes! They watch her play with her blocks.

Tall block tower. She's building against a leg of the bench so it won't fall down this time.

For some reason all of them find this fascinating and delightful.

Good for them. Blocks blocks blocks. Eventually one of the towers falls down and she would rather read books. The courtyard doesn't have any she hasn't read so she goes and gets the rest of the unread books.

"Would you like someone to read them to you?"

    "She can read them herself!" says Aitim proudly.

"What a clever girl!"