Chapter 236

• The door of the café closed behind me, and with it, years of waiting closed too. I did not walk quickly at first. My steps were steady, almost deliberate, as though I was teaching my body how to move in this new air. The river was only a short walk away, and I found myself drawn there without deciding.
• The afternoon light hung low, scattering across the water in broken gold. Boats moved slowly along the current, their wakes dissolving into the ripples. People leaned against the railing, some with ice cream cones, others with cameras. The ordinary rhythm of strangers had never looked more extraordinary to me. Life was going on, indifferent to the small tremors in my chest.
• I stopped at the railing, placed both hands against the cool metal, and breathed. The conversation with Roman still pressed against me, but in a way that felt softer than I expected. It had not healed me, because I had already healed myself long before today. What it had done was place a stone in its final place, closing a path I no longer needed to walk.