An ordinary notification with an unimaginable significance

An ordinary notification with an unimaginable significance

The notification arrived without much fanfare. No vibration. No warning. Just an inconspicuous line of text on my phone – completely normal. And that’s precisely what made it unbearable.

Eight days had passed since the funeral. Eight days in which I realized that silence is not empty—that it is oppressive, that it fills spaces, that it hums in your ears when the world stops asking how you are. I had only just begun to breathe in that silence when I saw her.

A debit from our joint bank account.
A rental car.

My heart leaped, as if something had grabbed me from behind. Of all things, a rental car. No groceries. No bill. Something deliberate. Something impulsive.