Chapter 13: The Second Year
The second year settled into the same quiet pattern as the first, only with less need to measure it against the day the doors closed.
The modest apartment remained sufficient. The caregiver’s schedule lightened as my strength and the familiar layout made more tasks manageable. Patrick’s work stayed steady enough that the old margin of coins on the kitchen table never returned. Samuel grew. Samantha began speaking of a larger place of their own someday, the way people do when the immediate threat has stayed away long enough to be believed. I continued the Sunday visits when asked and continued leaving before the evening fully claimed the room, so that their household remained theirs.
Christopher and Victoria made no further approaches. The silence was cleaner than another round of careful concern would have been. I did not fill it.
