You ask why I make my home in the
mountain forest,
and I smile, and am silent,
and even my soul remains quiet:
it lives in the other world
which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.
~ Li Po
Marla says cruel things that she doesn’t mean. That’s how she deals with her painful life. Most of us do not understand that we might see each other only for a brief few times in a single lifetime and yet be eternal friends. Marla is drawn to your soul, Alexander. Your people have the most dazzling and vivid souls. Since Marla has always been so very close to that other world, where only soul exists, she is able to see and love your soul.