She traced the words, her hands a patchwork of scars, each one a year, each one a nameless war. Her daughter, Lily, had left for the sea— waves took time, and silence was all they’d keep.
Jennifer folded the letter, kissed its edge, and set it free. Not in the mailbox, but the wind’s embrace. The test didn’t ask for right answers, she knew— just a mother’s truth, like a heartbeat, unswayed.
Now that promise sat like a stone in her throat. The clock blinked, the kettle hissed. Lily’s voice came back— “The sea doesn’t care if you’re brave. It just is.”