Tsuruko looked up from the garden patch where she harvested the last of the summer squash. Azuki-san? Had she heard Azuki-san? She shook her head. She couldn't possibly have heard her so quietly. Azuki-san would have used the Wishing Rocks. No, she decided, she missed the children; that was all.

All three children had been on her mind, together and one at a time. She wanted to see them and speak to each of them, find out what they'd been doing, see Azuki's new work, hear tales ...