The sound of tires crunching gravel brought me back to the present. Pablo had returned to the porch after walking me out, and Martha’s silhouette was still faintly visible through the window as she waved. The sky above me was deep purple now, tinged with traces of orange and blue that clung stubbornly to the horizon. As I walked down the street lined with bougainvilleas, the world around me felt both familiar and distant—like stepping into a memory but never quite belonging to it entirely.
My hometown wasn’t the same as it was when Drew was alive, but I couldn’t tell if the changes were in the streets or in me. The house across the way, the one that used to always have kids playing basketball in the driveway, looked deserted now. The local diner still had the same flickering neon sign, bu
