Every year during the summer, there's a certain day when my mom would take a break from work, dress nicely, and go out. No, it's not my birthday, but something else. Mom has been doing it for as long as I can remember, and I never really thought of asking her why - it's just how it's always been, I guess.

I never really asked - until Tenzin brought it up.

"Where does your mom go when she takes a day off from work and leaves you here?"

I shrugged. "I don't know - maybe she watches theater or something."

"Watches... Theater?" He looked at me in disbelief. "Your mom is blind."

"Hey - watch it, airhead. My mom can see perfectly well through her feet."

Tenzin considered it for a while. Sometimes, he forgets that we Beifongs are some of the greatest earthbenders in the world. My mother learned the art with the help of badgermoles, and she knew how to use her senses to an extreme advantage. Tenzin doesn't know it, but mom is training me the same way. "Well it's not the same, because she cannot see how the actors look like," he added.

"Fair point."

From inside the house, I could hear my sister crying. Suyin is quite a handful, even for Aunt Katara. I honestly don't know how mothers deal with kids - all they do is cry and shriek and be all-around brats. I'm only thirteen, but I sure as hell won't want kids when I'm older.

"What if we follow your mom?" Tenzin asked.

I scoffed at his suggestion. "Follow her? You're kidding, right? She'd hear us for sure."

"Not if we fly," Tenzin said, smiling that goofy smile of his. "Come on, Lin. Your mom hasn't been gone that long - if we fly on Oogi, I'm sure we can catch up on her."

It sounded like a good idea. "Fine."

Flying is fine, but I really don't prefer it as a mode of transport. Airships are okay - they're solid and made of metal, so I'm never completely out of my element. Flying atop a furry sky bison, however, is a completely different thing. I couldn't feel anything under my feet but the saddle and Oogi's heartbeat. I've gotten used to it over the years, thanks to Tenzin - but I would choose cars and ships over sky bison anytime.

"Hey - there she is," he said, pointing downward. I saw my Mom leaving a flower shop, carrrying a big bouquet of purple cosmos in her hand. "What's she doing with all those flowers?"

"Can we go lower?"

Tenzin shook his head. "I can't - Oogi feels uneasy near the ground. I think the noise of the vehicles scares him."

"Can we go faster then?"

"Sure."

We flew quite some distance behind my mother, stopping only when she entered another shop. Tenzin took out his glider.

"Hey - are you going down there?"

"Uh-huh," he replied. "Oogi, stay put."

What was mom doing with the flowers? She wasn't fond of them - in fact, she thought they should remain attached to the plant, rooted in the earth, so they could thrive and live.

Tenzin flew up. "Your mom just bought some incense - she's headed to the memorial park."

Memorial park? We don't have relatives buried there. Perhaps mom is visiting a friend. Maybe a colleague who's really close to her. This is really getting weird.

Tenzin urged Oogi on, and we followed Mom to the far end of the memorial park. I have no idea how she found her way through rows upon rows of gravestones, but somehow, she did. I guess it was because she had been doing it for so long.

Hovering a few feet behind her, Tenzin and I saw Mom bend away the dirt and dust that had settled onto the polished black gravestone. She then lit the incense, waved it a few times in front of her, and bowed her head. Mom wasn't a very spiritual person - and I was quite surprised to see her praying for someone. Whoever it was, he or she must've been really special to her.

Mom removed the paper wrapping around the bouquet and set the flowers down. Then she sat right in front of the gravestone and began to talk. Using his airbending, Tenzin made the sound of my mother's voice clearer for us to hear.

"Hey," she began. "Sorry I came late - I got held up at home, but... I'm here now. So - happy birthday! I hope you're happy wherever you are -"

"Who's buried in there?" Tenzin asked.

"I have no idea, so shut up, Ten."

"- she's a good girl, very smart," Mom continued. "One day, we would have to tell her about you."

She then went quiet, and from the looks of it, began to cry a little. Tenzin was about to tell me something, but I waved my hand in front of him so he'd keep mum.

A few moments later, Mom brought her hand up against the stone and began tracing patterns on it - perhaps the dead person's name. She rose and smoothed her clothes. "Until next year, then. I got you your favorite flowers, by the way - boy are they expensive!" With one last look and a barely audible goodbye, mom left.

When both of us were sure that Mom was far away, Tenzin found a patch of grassy land for Oogi to land on, and we both made our way to the gravestone.

It looked like all the other gravestones in the cemetery, except that it was made of polished black stone and that it had the emblem of the Metalbending Police. "Oh - so it was a colleague, after all. And he was fond of cosmos."

Tenzin was eyeing the characters on the gravestone. He was tracing them in the air using his finger, and his motions made the smoke from the incense curl up into tendrils and little spirals. "Lin, could you help me read this?"

"Kan... To? I don't know - I'm kinda unclear on the second character, Ten."

"Kanto," Tenzin repeated. I'm sure he's going to check this out when he gets home. "Well - you wanna go?"

"Yeah."

Kanto, huh? I'm sure if Mom wanted me to know, she would've told me a long time ago - but why would she? Work is work, family is family. Two separate things - and my mother is good at keeping things separate.

Whoever this Kanto is, I won't ask her.

It's just how it's always been.