Jonah closed the file and felt ridiculous for caring. He was not part of that world. He had never danced with grit under his soles. Still, the story left residue on him—an urge to call Mateo, to ask if the cassette still existed, to find the alley where Rosa had taped her ticket-stub constellations. It left him with an understanding that stories are patchwork. They live in the overlaps where strangers share a beat and call it home.