That work I couldn’t stand is the reason you’re on this phone.

It brought you home to me.” A pause I will hear for the rest of my life.

“I’m proud of you, Cora.”

Four words.

Sixteen years.

Something that had been locked shut in me since I was twenty gave way all at once, and I wept so hard a nurse came running, and I had to wave her off with one hand to show her nothing was wrong.

For the first time in a very long time, nothing was.