For a moment, nothing. Then the first notification: a like from an account she didn’t recognize, probably a bot. Then another. A comment from her friend Maya: This is gorgeous. You okay? A heart from her old coworker Derek. A save from someone named @solitary_walker.
Why did she want to post it?
Then she closed her laptop, poured out the cold coffee, and finally opened the box labeled KEEP. lets post it
She took a sip of cold coffee and made a face.
And then, a direct message. From a woman she’d met once at a writing workshop three years ago. The message said: For a moment, nothing
Then she thought about her grandmother, who had died six months ago. Nonna used to say, “Se non lo dici, non esiste.” If you don’t say it, it doesn’t exist. But Nonna also used to say that the internet was “a devil’s ledger where people trade their secrets for pennies.” Nonna was complicated.
Below it, a photograph she’d taken that morning. Sunlight through a cracked windowpane, falling across the scarred wooden floor of her empty apartment. The one piece of furniture left was a cardboard box labeled KEEP . She hadn’t opened it in three years. A comment from her friend Maya: This is gorgeous
“Some seasons don’t end. They just learn to wear different clothes.”