― The old man has picked his grandson up to show him the Royal Botanical Gardens. He looks at him from the side as the boy looks around for places to hide, and thinks: it will be a few more years before he’ll begin pitying me. As they walk towards the greenhouse, the man feels the holiness of the site for  his people. He looks up in the sky and sees a single bird circle. So much space, and yet he imagines it not lonely up there. He wonders if the birds have ghosts, too, and where they go when they’re dead. He wouldn’t mind joining them when the time has come. The child takes his hand and huddles under the old man’s grey heron wings.

From the new series: 24 faces of the Earth in 24 hours, Christmas Eve. Next stop: Auckland, NZ.