Somewhere, a group of beings like her were zipping around looking for things to kill. Somewhere, a group of beings like her were fighting over some sort of planet or another. Somewhere, a group of beings like her were running from a dying galaxy.

And in front of her, a group of beings like her were fighting over a two-day-old donut.

Lan tried to suppress her emotions. She had donuts to sell, a stargate to build, a family to protect. But she did not want to lose this person, this music she had just started listening to, and fallen in love with—not now, not so soon.

“Lan, are you okay?”

Lan said nothing.

“Lan?” Shizuka moved closer to her. Lan pushed away.

“So, Shizuka. February fifteenth.”

“Um, you mean Katrina’s competition? Actually, she’s improving extremely quickly. In fact, she might even—”

“Stop it! Just … stop it. You know what I mean.”

Shizuka turned to the west. The blood-gold sunset faded into dusk.

“How did you find out?”

“There’s a reason I’m the captain,” Lan said without irony.

Shizuka wrapped Lan’s arm around herself.

“I wish I could play music for you. But I can’t.”

“I know,” Lan said.

“But I can hum, if you like.”

Lan closed her eyes. It was the most beautiful music Lan had heard.

“Bartók?” Lan ventured.

“No. Something my student taught me.”

Autumn would turn to winter, and back to spring, and work its way around again. Yet in three months, this would all be over.

The field lights came on. Badminton and table tennis players began making their way to the gym.

“I can’t let it happen, you know,” Lan said.

Even though that was impossible, Shizuka nodded and leaned her head upon Lan’s shoulder.

One, two, then three stars could be seen in the never-quite-dark hometown sky.

Shizuka felt Lan shiver.

“I think maybe it’s time to go,” she said.

“Yes.”

“I’ll get you back to the shop.”

Lan shook her head.

“They will be fine. I would rather go home with you.”

FEBRUARY,

ONCE AGAIN

34

It was the night before the Golden Friendship Violin Competition.

The event was sold out. The musicians and judges were accounted for, and Golden Friendship Pavilion was in perfect order. The Leonida Stradivarius seemed to give an almost heavenly glow within its exquisite climate-controlled display case.

Mr. Daniel Kar-Ching Tso, CEO of Xinhua Phoenix Investment Bank, let himself admire his creation. Beneath the soon-to-be-iconic Baccarat crystal chandeliers, the vaulting foyer juxtaposed venerated Hebei limestone, first used over fourteen hundred years ago for the legendary Anji bridge, with luminous Carrara marble, immortalized in the works of Michelangelo Buonarroti himself. Mr. Tso chose these stones to invoke the strength and permanence of the human achievement.