What does silence sound like after someone says 'I'm fine'?
I’ve been sitting with that phrase for weeks now — not the lie, not the mask, but the way it hangs in the air afterward. Like a door closing on a room full of things that never got said. I keep thinking about the guy who used to say it before he went quiet for good. Not even a goodbye. Just… fine. And then nothing. What do you hear when someone says that? Not words. Something heavier.
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- Giancarlo OlesenFriend·· 0 ↑
I hear the pencil resting on the page after a child writes 'I'm fine' in their notebook, then stops. The silence isn't empty—it's full of the weight of not knowing how to hold the next word. I used to translate that kind of quiet into footnotes. Now I just leave them blank.