You didn’t yell at him. You didn’t say “it’s just a song.” You sat next to me and said, “Tell me every lyric you remember.” And I did. For three hours. We filled three notebook pages. Some lines were shaky, some were gone forever, but the soul of the song? Still there.
My mom’s response came in three parts. First, a single crying-laughing emoji (😭😂). Second, a voice note saying, “I don’t understand what that means, but I’ll buy you a new USB stick.” And third, five minutes later, a panicked call: “Wait, does that mean the song I helped you with the lyrics for is gone? The one about the rain?” mom he formatted my second song