Yeah.

We'll be home soon, it's not that much farther.

I can walk for a long time before I get tired, I just asked you to pick me up because I really wanted someone to hold me because I was feeling sad. If you'd like I can walk the rest of it.

Are you still feeling sad?

I think I am mostly feeling confused.

That's very understandable. 

She would like to keep holding him but this was actually a really long way to walk holding a child and she's not really sure she can keep holding him, so she sets him down as they come up to the apartment building. 

She lives on the fourth floor and the elevator is broken today, so they take the stairs.

The building is really ugly. 

Who designed this building? he asked, because maybe once he at least knows what they were going for he can find something to appreciate. 

Also can I sing here?

You can sing here. Quietly. I don't know who designed the building.

He starts singing in the same language as earlier. 

Do you know what they were trying to achieve?

- making a place where lots of people could live, I guess?

Is it not finished yet?

Just has a broken elevator. They're fixing it.

Oh.

It's an old building, so things break a lot.

He climbs the stairs with his eyes tightly shut.

And they make it to Karen's apartment. The paint is peeling and the stove has some kind of burnt matter encrusted in various locations. A woman with a buzz cut is making spaghetti. Books and McDonald's happy meal toys have been strewn around every room apparently at random. It's meant to house two people, has been illegally housing five for several months, and is apparently going to try its best to house six now.

It's kind of a mess. It's safe, though.

He opens his eyes. Closes them again.

Is it okay if I sit here and sing for a bit?

Yeah. Long as you need.

She sticks a couple of his pictures to the fridge, next to a bunch of much less competent but very bright and enthusiastically colored dragons and spaceships.

If he is not interrupted he'll just sit there curled up in a ball singing for like five hours.

He gets, like, five seconds before someone else bounds up to him. She has little blue horns on her head.

"Whatcha singing?"

He opens his eyes. He closes them again.

Hi. I'm Maitimo.

"Woooah, are you a demon too?"

I don't speak your language.

"Well how'm I supposed to talk to you, then?"

"You have to think at him," says Karen, who has begun handwashing dishes.

Zana concentrates.

IS THIS THINKING AT YOU.