Sookhee takes a jerky step toward Emmett. As she talks, her movements become smoother and more natural, as if she’s growing more solid and real with each word. “My deepest desire was for you to be loved and embraced by my community. The goddess promised to give you magic if I let her borrow my body. But it was never her intention to help me. She just wanted the artifact for herself. She possessed me and made me do terrible, terrible things.” Sookhee weeps, and it looks like a dam has broken inside her. And it’s no wonder. Thirteen years’ worth of pent-up emotion has been released, and she is finally getting the chance to clear her name.

It all makes sense now. The bearded man told me there were always two sides to every story, and he was right. I did see Sookhee take the sunstone ax from the Horangi in the vision in the Haetae’s bell. But it wasn’t her. It was the Cave Bear Goddess. She’d been behind everything the whole time.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you, my baby,” Sookhee sobs. “But please know that everything I did, I did for you. I love you more than you could ever know. And I am so proud of how you’ve turned out, my son.”

Something cracks in Emmett and he pulls Sookhee into a tight hug. “You came back from the dead to find me,” he whispers. “I love you, too, Mom. Saranghaeyo.” He openly weeps into her shoulder, and my own leaky-bladder eyeballs do what they do best.

Now I realize that tears are nothing to be ashamed of. I’d always considered them a flaw—something that made me weak. But now I see that they are a part of who I am—a part of who we all are. They come because we care. It’s a way of saying I love you.

As Emmett, too, embraces his emotions in a way he’s never done before, Hattie’s body glows bright from every pore. Then, as she crumples and falls softly to the floor, the light pulls away, like skin being shed by a snake. The glow re-forms into the shape of a leopard standing next to Hattie’s body, and it shimmers like a holograph.

“Mom?” Emmett stares at the cat with wide eyes.

The leopard pushes her snout into Emmett’s hand. “Now I can finally leave in peace,” she whispers. “Never forget, my son—you were made in love, and you will live a life full of love. Don’t be scared of letting it in. You are worthy of it all. Good-bye.”