But e’en after painting its handle as thoroughly as possible, Nguyệt couldn’t get it to do anything. She e’en tried rotating it round its holder.
She looked back @ the face o’ the mug & read its instructions ‘gain:
If you want to bring back summer,
paint my arm with one’s son’s colors.
& that was exactly what she’d done: she snuck into her son’s room & stole some o’ his paints, & then painted it onto the mug’s handle. She figured the fact that her son happened to have paints wasn’t a coincidence.
But now as she pondered her failure, her pupils dilated as she realized what the poem was truly telling her…