There’s a certain kind of fear that comes not before or during, but after an event has passed. The same fear that comes after you’ve swerved the car out of the way a second before it crashed; of missing a step and catching yourself right as you’re falling; of noticing a mistake on your test and correcting it before the teacher collects it. The sharp, heart-pounding realization of what could have happened, of how fragile and arbitrary life itself is, of how one moment, one mistake, could have the power to change everything.
