#'oum' is used for someone of your parent's generation who is older than your parent

[boiwcndr]

sometimes, she hesitates. words that she used to speak without thought have become stilted on the tongue, accent once clear now murky and tainted.

memories have started to blur together too -- was it ming na that used to sit down with her to braid her hair, or was that bong ly?

she remembers sitting down on the floor of the kitchen with her mother and her sisters and her aunts, peeling eggroll wrappers for them to fill. love was time. love was food. love was talking and eating and cooking together.

and now she sits on the floor of her kitchen all by herself, peeling the eggroll wrappers. she hums to herself, a song that she thinks oum ra used to sing in karaoke that she teased her over. it's still too quiet. she's still alone.