Episode Transcript
Before the words by James Lott, Junior, Rico sat in
his parked car outside the doctor's office. He hadn't started
the engine, he hadn't reached for his phone. The hum
of the city moved around him, horns, voices, a dog
barking down the street, But inside the car, everything was
(00:23):
still Stage four. The words echoed louder than the traffic.
He didn't cry, not yet. He just sat there, fingers
resting on the steering wheel, chest rising and falling, like
he didn't quite believe he should keep going. He thought
of his wife, first, Maria, her soft laugh, the way
(00:47):
she always knew when something was wrong. How could he
tell her something this big and still sound brave. Then
he thought of his kids, Matteo with his wild idea
and music always blasting, Carmen with her quiet strength. He
could already picture the way their eyes would change, how
(01:10):
they'd tried to hold him up even as their world tilted.
But before he told them he needed this moment alone,
Rigo leaned back in his seat and let his mind
drift through the winding hallway of his life. The messes
he'd made, the apologies he should have said sooner, the
(01:32):
jobs he'd quit too early, the friends he'd ghosted, the
drinks that blurred too many nights in his twenties, the pride,
the lies, the way he'd let fear make decisions for him.
Sometimes he felt cheated. All those plans for one day,
all the things he thought he'd have time to fix,
(01:53):
time to do, time to say. It didn't seem fair.
It felt like life had picked the long time to
cash out. Then the anger came not at the world,
but at himself, for wasting time, for not appreciating the
mundane joys, for yelling over stupid things, for ignoring the
(02:15):
signs that his body was whispering before it started to scream.
But then, as the sky turned a soft orange and
the noise outside softened, a strange peace found him. He
was human. He had loved hard, He had failed often.
(02:37):
He had laughed until his stomach hurt, and made mistakes
he wished he hadn't. But he had also danced in
his kitchen, held his babies in his arms, and forgiven
people who didn't ask. He had lived. Rico exhaled slowly,
letting that realization settle. This wasn't the ending Higgs did,
(03:01):
but it was his, and now he was ready to
stop sitting in silence. The people he loved deserved to know,
and he was strong enough to tell them. He started
the engine, put his hands firmly on the wheel, and
drove home. Not to say good bye, but to begin
(03:22):
the hardest conversation of his life.
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