"I'm so proud of you," he said softly, and she clung to him a little longer and then let go so he could be proud of her again. He smiled at her and she smiled back. There were other children and their parents here, and she could hear that some of them were crying. That firmed her resolve, and she swallowed again and smiled a little more.

"I love you. I'll come to see you as soon as I can, ok?"

"I love you too. Ok." She sounded sort of sad to herself, but he didn't seem to notice. He smoothed her hair away from her forehead and kissed the middle of it. She wanted to hug him again, but he was already standing up and the moment had passed. He handed her the little bag he'd been carrying for her and then her blue information card, and she took these things without looking at them. His face was proud, and it made her feel stronger.

He didn't say anything else, and so after a moment she turned and started walking towards the guards.

"Alexandra?"

He called her name, and she turned back, her heart beating faster. Had she forgotten to do something? He usually waited for her to make her mistakes before he corrected her. Maybe he changed his mind and he wanted her to stay.

But he just smiled at her again, and she wanted to run back to him and throw her arms around him. She just held onto the handle of the bag more tightly as he stroked her cheek. "It'll be ok," he said just above a whisper, so no one else would hear and she wouldn't be embarrassed. "Go on."

She nodded, chagrined that her distress had been so apparent, and then walked to the growing line of children in front of the station. There were only two or three people in front of her, and when the woman asked her for identification she gave her name and waited a full three seconds before she realized that she had to give the woman her card.

The woman took it impatiently and scanned it and looked at the screen before her. "Section Two," she said shortly and gave back the card. She got out of the next child's way and moved into the larger room beyond it. There were three hallways at right angles to one another, and each had a number printed over it.

There were other children moving through the room. Most glanced up quickly at the hallway labels and moved on, but there was one who stood near the side of the room, looking at some papers in his hand and then at the labels above the doors. At first she thought it was a girl because of the long hair, but when she got closer and saw his face, tense and unhappy, she could tell it was a boy. She stopped and in front of him and he glanced at her with apprehension like he was looking at an unfamiliar animal and then went back to looking.

Other kids were streaming past them but no one else stopped, so she tried a smile. He blinked at her and didn't respond, but she had his attention.

"Are you lost?" she asked in neo, and he let out a long breath like he'd be holding it. "She talked very quickly," he replied apologetically in the same language. His accent was a little strange but he was intelligible, and she was about to ask him if she could see his papers when an adult hand came down on her shoulder. She jumped and looked up and flinched at the disapproving expression on the officer's face.

"What section are you in?" he demanded. "Two," Alexandra replied meekly. "That way," indicated the officer impatiently with a little push, and she walked slowly toward the hallway, glancing back at the boy. She wanted to say that she'd known where she was supposed to go already, and that she had just been trying to help because the boy was lost, and that the woman at the front talked too fast for people who didn't already know neo-Mandarin well, but the officer was already shuffling the boy back to the woman behind the desk. They snapped at each other in plain Mandarin and then the officer hustled the boy across the room again and into the Section Three doorway.