Pat

Pat is the feeling of coming home.

The long way back, the road you'd know with your eyes closed, the door that was never really locked. The place that never asked you to be anything but there.

You carry her the way you carry a song you can't remember learning: quietly, everywhere, every word still there.

Everywhere else, time keeps moving. Here, it waits for you.

Warm and safe, and only ours.