Maintaining Normalcy With Lisa
Our calls remained focused on innocuous topics, avoiding the tempest simmering beneath the surface. ‘How is the weather there?’ I’d ask, keeping it light and airy. We discussed everything except the elephant in the room: Mark’s unexpected discovery. It took time, I told myself. Each talk seemed like threading a needle: delicate but important. But avoidance lingered like a shadow, a warning that the truth was too powerful to unleash right now.

Maintaining Normalcy With Lisa
Emotional Drain
The emotional tension strengthened its grasp on each of us. Tension hummed in the air, and everyone looked thin under its weight. I felt pushed to my limits, always torn between concern and uncertainty. Conversations seemed broken, hardly masking the tension beneath the surface. Even simple activities looked gigantic, with the smallest questions causing anxiety. As the weeks passed, we all became fatigued from the rising uncertainty.

Emotional Drain