Some evenings, the world slowed down just enough.

  Dinner had been eaten. The plates cleared, mostly by their mother while their father was still at work or already resting in the other room. The TV murmured in the background, a soft glow dancing on the walls. Their younger sibling sat cross-legged with blocks and puzzles, lost in a world of color and shape.

  He and his sister sat near the window.

  She had a book. He had crayons.

  Sometimes she read aloud, just a few words. Sometimes not. It didn’t matter. Being near her, feeling her presence beside him, was its own kind of language. A steady hum of safety.

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  They didn’t talk much. He didn’t know how to say most of what he felt. She didn’t seem to need him to.

  He colored.

  She turned pages.

  Their mother came into the room once to gather socks from the floor and smiled at them—not the big, busy smile she wore when talking to others, but the soft one, just for them. She brushed a hand over his head as she passed. He leaned into it for a second, quiet and content.

  Their home wasn’t perfect. It was noisy in ways he couldn’t quite understand, and quiet in ways that sometimes felt too deep.

  But there were moments like this.

  Simple. Still. Safe.

  Later, before bed, he stood in the hallway and watched as his sister quietly helped their younger sibling into pajamas, fussing about the socks being on the wrong feet. She had a serious face when she did things like that—like she was already a little grown up, already carrying more than she should have to.

  He admired her in that moment.

  Not for being loud or brave.

  But for *staying.*

  For being the kind of quiet that made space, instead of pushing it away.

  When the lights were turned off and the world shrank down to their room, he pulled the covers up to his chin and watched the shadows dance on the ceiling. A small night light glowed in the corner.

  From the other side of the room, his sister whispered:

  “Goodnight.”

  *Goodnight*

  He replied Back softly.

  She heard that too.

  and Smiley.