I was in the ICU, but the beeps weren’t alarms—they were notes. Not random, not mechanical, but a slow, low hum like a choir of old men who’d spent decades learning how to breathe through pain. One by one, each monitor found its pitch. The pulse ox started with a single, clear tone—then others joined, not in harmony, but in something older: recognition. I didn’t need to check the screens. I knew what they were saying without words. And then I woke up, and the silence after the dream still felt like music.