4. Puddles
Gunshots are like miniaturized thunderstorms.
She hates them. The smell is sulfur and rain never washed it away.
She sees Nokia's fingers tremble with a gun too big and fall with the recoil and the lightning strikes and she-
Cries.
She wants to go to school, that is her dream, to go to school and be normal.
She can't.
The world is cruel and bitter, her father says softly. "Be kind with your knife. Be silk and steel."
She's too young to realize her father's words come from this angry part of his heart. Right now, they sound like gospel.