See You -2019- - I

The lady smiled. It was a terrible, beautiful thing. “That’s the hard way. That’s the way without proof.”

And for one impossible moment, the snow fell upward. Then it stopped. Then 2019 ended, as all years must. i see you -2019-

It began, as these things often do, with a whisper no one else could hear. The lady smiled

Leo’s mind raced. A hole in the air. The red balloon. A woman who lived between years. “Mia, is she hurting you?” That’s the way without proof

A week later, the second card came. A photo of an empty carousel. On the back: Remember the red balloon? Leo remembered. Mia had lost a red balloon at the county fair last spring. She’d cried for an hour. He’d bought her two more. The date was the same: