Distraction-free writing, on a real book page.

The First Morning

She opened the shutters and the sea was there, perfectly still, as if it were waiting for someone.

The sand had covered the last step during the night, and the house smelled of salt and old wood.

“Are you staying?” he asked from the kitchen.

She did not answer right away. Outside, a gull circled above the pines, and something in her, something she could not name, circled with it.

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