She starts to laugh. Then everything catches up to her. I watch the realizations pummeling her, one on top of the next. Her entire vision of her life, vanished. The knowledge that this person she used to see nearly every day would become one she’d only speak to under the harshest of necessary circumstances. Her posture sags, not much—just enough that I know some spark sustaining her has gone out. She drops down onto the edge of the bed, and her eyes glaze over. I stand, helpless. I want to tell her she’ll be okay, that she’ll feel like her life has fallen apart, but she can choose every piece
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