[Spoken Word | male | warm | reflective] Before any of this, there was just us. Long summers. Bare feet. Wind in our hair. Days that started at the beach and ended wherever we landed. Laughing for no reason. Thinking this would never change. We grew up side by side. Different paths, same shoreline. Even when life pulled us apart, there was always that place. That feeling. Like we could pick up right where we left off. [Pause | breath] [Spoken Word | same voice | slower | heavier] But for some people, the story doesn’t keep going. It doesn’t turn into clarity. It doesn’t turn into change. It just… stops. What’s left behind isn’t an explanation. It’s a space. An empty room. A quiet phone. Conversations that end too soon. Families trying to understand what they couldn’t see coming. Children growing up with stories instead of memories. People learning how to live around absence. No one plans for this. No one thinks this will be the outcome. But sometimes, this is the cost. [Pause | silence] This is for my friend Chris. And for everyone who didn’t find a way back. [Silence | breath] Into the blue.
