I am, for the first time in months, inspired. My chest opens. Adrenaline spreads hot down both legs. It’s the opposite of what happened at the dinner table, that terrifying moment of shutdown. This is your chest hinging open and gasping with relief. This is air and light, this is blood flow and movement, the belief that I will overtake all this before it overtakes me. This is how it happens. I am terrified, I fear for my life. But I fall. I fall.
