It’s that hour when the sun is low enough to slide through the back window and pool on the linoleum like spilled honey. I stood there this evening, one hand on the fridge, thinking about how my old oak—gone now to oak wilt—used to cast a shadow just like that in summer. Not the same, of course. Trees don’t leave shadows; they leave absences. And yet, here it is again: the exact shape of something lost, warm and horizontal across the floor. I didn’t even know I was waiting for it.