But the jars breed. Emotions, unloved, multiply like larvae in a ruined pantry. Love becomes an embezzled sweetness; shame knits a web of excuse; fear becomes whole and hungry. The prison’s work is endless. Sometimes it would break, let one thing slip. A laugh wronged would creep back and sting the baker; a promise undone would gnaw on a child’s sleep. So the prison grows more jars.
But the jars breed. Emotions, unloved, multiply like larvae in a ruined pantry. Love becomes an embezzled sweetness; shame knits a web of excuse; fear becomes whole and hungry. The prison’s work is endless. Sometimes it would break, let one thing slip. A laugh wronged would creep back and sting the baker; a promise undone would gnaw on a child’s sleep. So the prison grows more jars.