"Yeah. It's... my mother always told me that when people are meant to be together, when they die, they stay together in death as stars in the sky. And there aren't any stars that are completely alone. When I was working in the mines in Pevek, the only thing I really had were the clothes on my back and a small window in my room. I used to wonder if maybe she was wrong. Maybe there were stars that were too far from the others to be connected. It was easy to lose hope, but sometimes having that window gave me a hope, too, that she was right."

He's nervous now, scared that his beliefs are about to get the laughter they usually pulled from non-Chukchi people. Even his grandparents had barely concealed their dismissal of ideas like that. And it's continually surprising and scary just how much he keeps pouring out to Dolemeck. He knows he shouldn't, and it just all comes out anyway in droves.

"I guess I was looking out the wrong window all that time. My star is here." He kisses Dolemeck tenderly on the cheek for emphasis.