28/10/2026
You could hear the school hallway before you saw anyone—just the steady, rhythmic crinkle of bread bags inside rubber boots.
Nobody had high-tech waterproof gear ordered off the internet; mom saved empty plastic loaf bags in the bottom kitchen drawer like gold, slid them over two pairs of wool socks, and sent us out into the drift because school was open and that was that. By second period, the cast-iron radiators were hissing in the corner, filling the room with that unforgettable smell of damp wool and drying leather.
We weren't made of glass, and neither was the world that raised us.