Smiling.
“You kept that?” he asked.
“Of course I did.”
He shook his head like he couldn’t quite understand it.
Then he said something that stayed with me.
“I tried to find you after high school.”
I stared at him. “What?”
“You were gone. And then life got… small.”
I had spent years thinking I was just a moment in his life.
He had spent years remembering me.
Now, we’re here.
Not young.
Not untouched by life.
But honest.
Careful.
Present.
