The worst part was that less than 24 hours earlier, I’d been hugging Ariel because I thought she’d done one of the kindest things I’d ever seen.
***
My daughter was ten and quiet enough that adults sometimes mistook her silence for shyness.
It wasn’t.
Ariel watched first. Then she decided whether something was worth saying.
I’d learned not to rush her.
My daughter was ten and quiet.
Maybe I understood her because I’d been the same way.
At 40, I still remembered being the child adults called « easy. » I behaved, helped, and rarely asked for much.
Nobody treated me badly. I just grew up watching louder people get noticed first.
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