Helen was already outside when Anna found her, bundled in a hospital blanket, breathing in the night air like it was something she needed.
Olivia sat behind her on a bench, one hand on Helen's wheelchair, the other holding her phone. They talked and laughed, eyes on the screen—happy in their own world.
Anna stopped, taking in the sight before her, nostalgia for something she never had curling around her. She never had such candid moments with her own mother—and if she ever had, they were so rare they’d faded into nothing.
Seeing the two of them together always made her want to reach out—call her own mother—but she never got to it. She wasn’t sure she would even answer if her mother called. She knew how that always ended.
Pushing aside the unwanted thoughts and fatigue weighing on her,
