When I was younger, I stayed in houses where “goodnight” meant everything. After long summer days, lightsaber fights, street games of capture-the-flag, biking to the pool, sleepovers, blockbuster runs, running wild with neighborhood kids — a parent would click the light and say it softly. Not “I love you,” but close enough that you felt it anyway, a small, steady kind of care that ended the day just right.
In other homes, “I love you” closed the night.
Said out loud, just in case.
Neither one better, neither one wrong. Just different kinds of honest.
This story lives in that in-between.
In a quiet coop, where feed falls at 5:03 every evening, two chickens watch the tall one scatter kernels with a rhythm gentler than usual. One sees routine. The other sees meaning, warmth tucked inside a simple gesture, the way some creatures say more in their pauses than in their words.
A soft fable about ritual, affection, and the subtle space between what’s spoken and what’s meant.
And maybe, if you catch someone’s eye at the right moment, you hear what wasn’t said at all.
Featured Song:
“Head Up in the Clouds” — Jon Worthy, O.F.C Russell & Kiki Halliday
Episode 4: Some Say Goodnight, Others Say I Love You
From The Randoverse: original short fiction brought to life through narration, sound, and stories that land somewhere between the everyday and the quietly extraordinary.