"String connects," he says.
"What?"
"String," he says, gesturing to the cat's cradle in her hands. "Great stuff. I use it all the time."
"For?"
He shrugs. "Collages, posters. Boxes. It's so useful, you just--here can I borrow it for a second? I'll show you." He leans over and plucks at her hands. Bemused, she lets him take it.
"It's all about objects, and the connections between them." He puts one string-end to a salt shaker, another to a napkin dispenser. "Drawing associations. Realizing facets of them we don't normally think about. See, you see a salt shaker. But all objects have stories, right? And string," he says, "connects those stories. Maybe this is your first kiss," he says, jiggling the salt shaker. He picks up and drops the napkin dispenser. "And maybe this is driver's ed in high school. Right? You see them as separated, but when you put string between them," he snaps a line on the table, "you get stories."

"Actually," Rose says softly, as he drops it back in her hands, "It's just something I've played with since childhood."