SHARED SILENCE

She wasn't just a dream.

She grew with me.

When I turned 13 and my dad left, I saw her again.

This time, she held my hand in the middle of a frozen lake.

She didn't ask what happened. She just stayed.

And that silence saved me.

She changed too. Taller, older, her voice stronger, her laughter softer.

I wondered if I was shaping her in my mind... or if she was shaping me in hers.