The jewelry business was small by industry standards, but to us it felt important. Serious. Alive. Every tray of rings and chains represented money we had already risked and inventory we would somehow have to replace if we wanted to stay in business another month. People who have never worked inside a small retail operation during unstable economic times often imagine business as orderly. Predictable. Numbers on ledgers. But when prices begin moving wildly underneath your fee

He stood in the doorway longer than he needed to, his hand resting lightly against the frame, not because he required the support, though there were days when he did, but because doorways had become something more than simple passage. There had been a time when stepping through one meant nothing more than moving from one part of the day into another—leaving for work, coming home, crossing from the familiar into the expected. Now they carried a different weight, as though eac