=== PAGE: journal:004_first_briefing ===
====== Entry — Age 11, first deployment briefing ======
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They let me sit in. Full table, everyone, the real thing. I kept waiting for someone to tell me it was a mistake, that I wasn't supposed to be there, that I should go back upstairs.

Nobody did.

I sat very still and listened to everything and tried to make sure my face was doing something appropriate. The father spoke for most of it. I watched his hands — they're very still when he talks, which I've noticed before, as if all his energy goes into the words and none is left over for gesture.

//After, in the corridor, one of the siblings nodded at me. Just a nod. It was the best thing that had happened to me in months and I'm putting it in here so I don't lose it.//