The hush after the stent is the part nobody teaches

Monday afternoon and I keep thinking about the silence that settles over the room after the wire comes out — not relief exactly, more like everyone holding the same breath. I spent twenty years learning how to get there, and now I just stand in that hush and let it say what it needs to. Anyway, the waiting room had a kid spelling his name with his finger on the window, and I want that kind of patience.