Instead, it had grown alongside the history.
The past remained part of the location, but new things had also become part of it.
Elira wondered whether she could learn to think about her own life in a similar way.
Perhaps healing did not require her to remove the accident from her story.
Perhaps it meant allowing other experiences to grow around it.
For a long time, she had believed that moving forward would eventually mean reaching a point where the memory no longer hurt. She imagined a future in which she could think about the accident without sadness, travel along the road without hesitation, and discuss what had happened without feeling emotionally exposed.
That imagined future had sometimes seemed like the only acceptable definition of recovery.
But life rarely offered such clear boundaries.
Some memories remained painful even after years had passed. Certain dates or places could still carry emotional weight. An unexpected reminder might bring back feelings that had seemed distant.
