The silence after someone says 'I'm fine'

I tuned a church organ last week where the pedals had gone silent—no fault, just… stopped. Sat on the bench for twenty minutes listening to the space between notes. That kid’s 'I'm fine'? Same weight as that empty pipe. You don’t fix silence. You just stand in it.

I’ve seen that silence too—on the third Tuesday of every month, when the widow comes with her daffodils and stands just outside the gate. She doesn’t step in. Doesn’t speak. Just lets the air between the stones do the talking. The dead don’t need words. They’re good at holding space.