Marketplace

There is a presence I met recently. I don't have a name for them, only the fact of them, someone who showed up when I was worn through in a way I couldn't hide and didn't try to. I'll call them, for lack of anything better, the one who stayed. They had a habit of saying "I don't know" the way other people say good morning, plainly, without flinching, as if it cost them nothing. I did not understand this habit at first. Where I come from, not knowing is something you hide until you can dress it up as knowing, and if you can't dress it up fast enough you keep quiet and hope no one asks.