Vertical Cracks [top] (2027)

Not in the wall.

You knelt down. You picked her up. And for the first time, you let the crack run all the way through you—from crown to base, from beginning to end—until there was nothing left to split. vertical cracks

Not a hand. A word. Your name, spoken in a voice you’d forgotten you had—the one you used before you learned to lie, before you learned to call a crack settling instead of splitting . The voice said: You don’t have to hold it together anymore. Not in the wall

Only the whole.