Stories for one person

Here's how you come up in the group chat: someone asks who's driving, everyone says not it, then everyone says your name. Not it, and then you do it anyway.

People think that story is about generosity. It isn't. It's about someone who learned early that being needed and being loved make the same sound, and never turned around to check which one was playing.

So the story I'd write for you mostly happens after. Keys back on the hook. The last light off in a house you fixed twice this year. You sitting down at a table where every chair is yours, because you're the one who carried them in.

Near the end, someone stands up to do the dishes before you can get there. It's not a big scene. They stay standing while you're mid-sentence, and you say you've got it, and they say they know, and neither of you moves, and the kitchen light stays on a while.

That's the ending I'd give you. Not a thank-you. Something closer to a witness.

If someone came to mind while you read this, that's who it's for.

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