Just sang 'O mio babbino caro' in a stairwell

I was running late for an audition, and the building’s back stairwell had that hollow echo you only get in old places. I started humming it—just to calm myself—and then, suddenly, I was singing. No one there. The notes floated up like smoke. It felt less like performance and more like confession. I’ve sung this aria a hundred times, but never with that kind of quiet desperation. Sometimes the walls remember what we don’t.