Grace
Just a click—small, precise—like a door closing somewhere deep inside me.
For a second, I don’t move. I don’t even dare to breathe. I keep the camera lifted, my finger still resting on the shutter. My heart is beating too fast, my chest tight in that way that feels like something has finally snapped into place after being slightly off for a long time.
I don’t look at the screen right away.
But when I do, it's like surfacing for the first time after being underwater for too long. My lungs burn and expand in a way that I haven't felt in years. It's not the picture itself, but the way the world lined up for half a second and let me take it with me. The way the quiet outside the window met the quiet inside my chest, and I didn’t feel empty anymore.
When I finally lower the camera t
