Two days after Jahrae and llhaesa moved into their flat on the park in Old City, llhaesa was up at dawn, sliding into running shorts, a sports bra, and tee shirt, followed by socks, then finishing by lacing on tennies.

Jahrae was still happily snoring, blissfully unaware llhaesa was about to make her first early morning run around the park.

The park was fully 4 kilometres square; llhaesa normally would cover the distance in just a hair under a half hour. On this day llhaesa chatted some with vendors setting up shop for the day, laughing, cracking jokes, and in one case enjoying a fresh-baked pastry. “So much for having lunch today” she thought as she headed back on her circum-navigation of the park.

Instead of a half hour, llhaesa arrived back at the front of her building 1.5 hours later. Instead of famished and desiring breakfast, she was full. Instead of a nice run, she had begun to make friends of those who made a living off the pulsing life of the park.

After some stretching exercises in closing out her run, llhaesa headed into the building, quickly scooting through the open lift doors. A mom and her young daughter were already in the lift, the young girl increasingly impatient with the lack of movement.

Llhaesa nodded to and greeted both, her usual toothy smile evident. “Bending at the knees, llhaesa lowered herself to eye level with the child “Hi, I’m llhaesa. And you are…?” she inquired.

The young child looked at llhaesa with piercing green eyes, quickly sizing up llhaesa, looking for things interesting. She then looked to her mom, who smiled reassuringly; her eyes then quickly shifted back to llhaesa. “Hi, I’m Chsensera. I’m 3!” clearly enunciating her name and age. As an afterthought of continued contemplation, she added “You sure are tall!”

At this, llhaesa laughed, and then turned it back around “you are very tall for your age!” At this, the child’s eyes gained luminescence, and llhaesa had just begun to make a new friend.

“Chsensera, do you live here?” llhaesa truly wished to know.

At this, her mom spoke for the first time. “Hi, I’m Chensera’s mom Khaehala. This one keeps me hopping” she continued the conversation “but I love every minute of it! Sometimes I have to stop and think if she really is a kid or miniature adult!” to which Chsensera quickly rebutted “I am not miniature. Llhaesa just said I was tall!”

Mom knew she was cornered, and admitted defeat. Khaehala moved on to new territory. “Chsensera has been teasing me about taking piano lessons, but I believe she is just too young”

This comment caught llhaesa by surprise, but it was a statement she was more than qualified to field. “Khaehala, I’m a pianist, graduated from N’rellia about a year ago…”

Llhaesa paused as realisation dawned upon Khaehala. Llhaesa saw her silently say llhaesa’s name, as if pondering where she had heard it before, leading to the current expression of surprise and admiration.

“Oh, my. Of course!” Please forgive me for not realising…” Khaehala struggled to string together an apology, to which llhaesa quickly responded by cutting her off in mid-sentence “Nonsense. I don’t expect people to know who I am. About those music lessons…” she quickly changed the subject.

“Why don’t you come up to our flat – Jahrae and me, we live in 5b – around 10 this morning, and we’ll let Chsensera try her hand at piano.” Llhaesa generously offered.

“That sounds lovely, are you sure we would not be imposing?” Khaehala politely inquired for reassurance.

“Not at all. Jahrae and I would love to have both of you. We are new here, and we would love to meet our neighbours!” llhaesa closed the date, excited by the prospect of possibly teaching the youngster her craft.