As Lenara lets out a sigh, she feels a tug on her leg and spins around to find Celeste, the seven year old daughter of her childhood friend Mena, peering up at her, grinning from ear to ear, and arching her eyebrows wildly.
“Oh – they’re beautiful!” Lenara exclaims, touching Celeste’s face, careful not to smudge the ink used to transform her eyebrows into two leaping dolphins. “Do they have names?”
“Codi and Pak,” Celeste says.
“I should have guessed.” Lenara kisses Celeste on the forehead. “I’m afraid the stories are still missing.”
“Oh well,” Celeste says, “we know them by heart anyway.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Lenara concedes. Celeste takes her hand and pulls her through the aisles.
“You start,” Celeste says.
“All right,” Lenara begins, “these stories…”
“Are to be shared with all of our children…” Celeste jumps in.
“From their earliest days…” Lenara continues.
“That they may never forget who they are!” Celeste finishes.
“Yes!” Lenara lifts Celeste into her arms and they drop down onto a bench carved from the fossilized jawbone of some ancient mammal.
“Tell me the story of Dolphin Cove,” Celeste demands, as she dangles her legs between the creature’s giant teeth.
“Yes – please.”
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