As she covered her face the mother sang her daughter’s death song. The background of bubbling water, the scene of the pine trees. Way in the background you could hear a pheasant crow. A seagull flies over.

“Mom, listen to these sounds, they have returned.”

She didn’t notice them before. The sounds came back. She could hear again. As she watches her daughter’s spirit leave her body the daughter picks up her infant son’s spirit and they are a few feet away from the mother. The spirit turns and waves at the mother. Their eyes meet, each understanding why the other must leave. The mother with her son in her arms and the mother watching. As the mother and son leave going downstream toward camp, the mother could hear her grandson cry in the distance as they depart.