The Shadow of Something

It’s December 2022…

You feel something. It’s there, but maybe not there. A firm something about the size of a fingerprint, just to the right of where you used to nurse your son–just where his tiny fingers would have grasped you. It’s a ghost of a feeling. There, not there. Is there something there? You convince yourself it’s not, but each sleepy morning you get up to walk to the sink, and it’s your touchstone. It embodies the uncertainty you feel during an uncertain season. Your body acts and looks differently these days…the rules have been changing for last few years, haven’t they? How do you even know what normal is anymore, let alone abnormal? You schedule a physical. It’s been awhile. It never occurs to you that it could actually be something until it is.