[Dara Major] [10 years earlier] The boy's perception of the world was limited to what he could immediately touch, taste, hear, smell, or see, and sight was limited to what he could understand. Dart ships moved past them, just above the level of the street, and left gusts of warm air pushing against his face as he was pulled along by the woman. The ships moving through the busy city really meant nothing to the boy, they were just another frightening object that invaded his small world. He was four years old. The boy ran to keep from falling, though he had done that several times already. The woman pulled at his arm to lift him up each time he fell. She was agitated, more than usual. He had learned to know when she was mad and would stay in the small room that was his sanctuary and play with his toys. The woman always seemed to be mad and he didn't know what he was doing wrong to make her mad all the time. He would play with his toys and wait until he thought the woman wasn't mad any longer, then inch his way out to the kitchen where she would be sitting at the table they ate their meals at and lay his head in her lap. "It's not your fault," she would say and give him a hug and the world was right again for a short time. The world never stayed right for very long and the woman would be mad again and he would wait in his room and play with his toys. This time the woman didn't hug him when he put his head in her lap. Instead, she threw a pile of paper and envelopes on the floor and got up to pace back and forth in the kitchen. The boy waited under the table, sitting and watching the woman. Something was different this time and he didn't know what to do. The woman was crying and talking to herself about things the boy couldn't understand. The woman reached a decision and pulled him out from under the table. She put his shoes on and tied them, and then his coat, and grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the door. She placed her hand on the doorknob and paused for a moment. "You stay right here," the woman instructed him and went down the hall to his room and returned a moment later. She pushed his favorite stuffed toy into his arms and opened the door. He held tightly to his treasured stuffed animal, an old ragged stuffed eagle the woman had gotten him from a second-hand store. The boy would hold the eagle's wings out and run around the room making cawing sounds, but now he just held on to his dearest toy. Something wasn't right, he sensed it. The woman tugged at his arm and he ran to keep up with her pace. The woman pulled him along streets he had never seen before. She would often take him with her to the store to get the food she would make for dinner, but this wasn't the way they would usually walk. The boy didn't know where they were. His legs were tired and he was afraid he would fall down again when she finally stopped at a corner. He thought they were waiting to go across the street. The traffic was heavy and ground cars moved beneath the air cars that crowded the skies above. The boy wondered why the cars in the sky didn't fall down. The woman knelt in front of him, she was crying. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said. "It wasn't suppose to be like this, he died and there is no money, I'm sorry.” The woman hugged him and adjusted his coat, zipping it up and pulling the collar further up around his neck. She pulled his arms tight around his stuffed toy and looked him in the eyes. "You stay right here," she said. "Do you understand? Do not move from this spot, someone will help you." The boy was crying but didn't know why, only because she was crying. He nodded and she stood up and without looking at him again she walked away and disappeared around the corner of a building. He stood there and didn't move. He was crying and waited but she didn't come back. Where did the woman go? What did he do wrong? The people walking by stared at him and everyone was a blur through the tears in his eyes. He waited. Another woman knelt down and tried to talk to him, then another woman and then a man. A crowd was gathering around him. He didn't know what to say, he was just supposed to wait here and not move. The boy was afraid now, so many people were standing around him trying to get him to talk. The crowd parted and a tall man, dressed different from the others stopped in front of him and looked down at him, it was a policeman. The boy didn't know how he knew it was a policeman, it was just one of those things you knew. A car pulled up next to him, it was different than all the other cars and there were lights flashing on top of it. The policeman grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the car with the flashing lights. He tried to fight back, he wasn't supposed to move. The woman wouldn't be able to find him if he moved. The policeman was too strong and dragged him to the flashing car, he dropped his stuffed animal and tried to pick it up but the policeman hadn't noticed and pulled him away. He was trying to tell the policeman that he dropped his toy but the policeman ignored him and pushed him into the car. A man and a little girl, standing in the crowd, were watching the boy being taken away. The little girl pulled away from the man holding her hand and ran over to the dropped stuffed toy. She grabbed the stuffed animal and ran to the policeman and tugged on his leg. The policeman stopped and looked down at the little girl. She handed the stuffed toy eagle to the boy who took it and hugged it tightly. "I'm Cassi, you're the Eagle," said the little girl. The man that had been holding the little girl's hand picked her up, turned and walked away. The boy watched the little girl being carried by the man, she waved at the boy from the man’s shoulder, and then was gone. The policeman closed the door and he curled up on the seat crying softly into his stuffed toy.