A Presence She Recognized

Mia stayed by the monitor, watching Ava’s breathing rise and fall. The baby’s hand was still resting near the snake, relaxed, unbothered. There was no sign of distress. She hadn’t cried. She hadn’t flinched. It was as if she recognized him, not just tolerated.

Mia thought back to the final weeks of her pregnancy, when she spent so much time in the living room near the terrarium. She talked without thinking, sometimes for hours, and her voice was the only constant sound in the apartment. Nimbus had always shifted toward her. Now, watching Ava, she began to wonder if somehow, that connection had never really broken.