softness. Just space. Space to decide later. Space that belonged to her.
That evening, after the last customer left, Mara sat at Celia’s machine and fed a strip of blue cloth beneath the needle. The motor hummed, low and familiar. Outside, Juniper Street glowed in golden light. The green awning stirred in the wind.
Mara stitched a straight line from one end of the cloth to the other.
It was not perfect.
But it held.
And for the first time since Celia’s death, Mara smiled.