VALORIA WILDEROSE
I've been stuck in silence with him for hours.
Surprisingly, he doesn't speak or utter a word to me now that he has the chance to make the last few hours before we arrive miserable for me.
Rather, he offers a silence that leaves me alone with my thoughts.
I count the minutes and seconds of every moment, knowing that as each goes by, I'm even closer to that place — my beginning and end.
I hold my breath and breathe again to calm my heart, fiddling with my fingers to distract myself from panicking, crying, or pissing myself in the car.
I do anything I can silently not to freak out, not to break down, not to think about that night, but it all fails miserably. The silence I craved instead is my prison.
How do I react when I see them? What do I say? Do I pretend like we've been close all our lives — like a real family?
