Every Time My Daughter Came Home Unresponsive, My Husband Told Me Not to Worry. The Recording in Her Backpack Revealed Why.

This time the music filled the house without making me think about what had been lost.

It made me think about the things we could still learn.

That evening we sat beneath the tree in the backyard and watched the sky turn from orange to violet.

Harper asked whether I thought trees remembered things.

I told her I didn’t know.

She said she thought they did, because their rings kept the years inside.

Then she rested her head against my shoulder.

I hoped she was right in her own way.

Perhaps we could carry the years without letting every one of them feel the same.

THE END.