Chapter 33: When the Wind Comes Back

There will be a moment—
maybe not right away,
maybe not for years—
when she feels him again.

Not in a dream.
Not in a voice.
But in the wind.

The same wind that rushed through the trees in Olongapo.
The same wind that wrapped around them
that night she sang “Wind Beneath My Wings.”
The same wind that carried her voice back to him
when she didn’t even know he was listening.

It will come quietly.
A breeze through the window.
The flutter of a curtain.
The hairs on her arm rising for no reason at all.

She’ll stop—mid-step or mid-sentence—
and she’ll feel it:
“He’s here.”

Not haunting.
Not watching.
Just present.

The way real love always is—
even when it’s silent.

She might look for signs.
Some do.
But the wind won’t be a sign.

It’ll be a memory returning.
A reminder.

That she wasn’t crazy.
That what they had wasn’t imagined.
That someone did fight for her.
That someone did stay.
Even now.

And maybe, in that moment, she’ll speak.
Softly. Without fear.
“Hi Stephen.”

Maybe that’s all.
Maybe it’s enough.

Because she’ll know:
The wind didn’t come to take anything.
It came to remind her
she was once held together by something fierce and true.
And it never really left.