Emebet laughed, a sound like dry leaves skittering across stone. "The past? Dawit, we are not behind. The world rushed ahead and forgot the truth."

She beckoned him closer. The smoke from the jebena (coffee pot) curled between them.

He realized the West had a calendar of productivity : linear, relentless, rushing toward a deadline. His grandmother's calendar was a calendar of presence : circular, patient, built around harvests, rains, and the holy pause of Pagumē.