"Thank fuck he doesn't." The relief as she says it is palpable. "Oh, I was- I was so worried at first. And when he came out he was- he was stuck between. I thought he might be like that always. Worked myself up to drown him in the river but... the moment he touched the waters, he turned into a little mewing kitten. Thankfully, animals looked like they should pretty early on, and by the time he was old enough to start being human shaped, I’d gotten the trick of seeing through what my brain kept showing me."

She taps the middle of her forehead. "I got split right down the middle of here by looking into something we weren’t meant to look into. I'm still scrambled, but it’s a lot better these days. Just ticks and fidgets mostly-" And she goes quiet as the jumbled person brings out the dishes.

They’ve gone with the quick ones to start and so the table quickly fills with two bowls of soup, one with wonton soup and one with hot and sour soup, three small servings of chicken fried rice, beef fried rice and shrimp fried rice, a mushroom chow mein, a shanghai noogle, and a still steaming plate full with a vegetable foo yong. With that grating voice, he offers them plates and cutlery.

Siffleur’s mom manages to give him a smile and nod, though her eyes are a little too pinched. As soon as he’s gone though, she grabs a spoon and motions to the hot and sour soup. "Do you mind if I take that one? You can take first pick of anything else."