They Did Not Come Back Changed. They Came Back Comfortable.
The call comes with a softened voice. Maybe it is a festival, maybe a health scare, maybe just the quiet arithmetic of their own aging. Whatever brought them back, they arrive at your threshold with an ease that startles you, as if the years between were a misunderstanding, a weather event, something that happened to both of you equally. They sit in your living room and reach for the chai with the confidence of people who never left. And you watch them do it, and something in your chest goes very still.
