Maya kept trying.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
But in the small, invisible ways that only the person who is losing can see.
She kept the condo tidy. She timed her medication carefully. She practiced speaking lightly so her voice would not carry weight. She smiled when Calvin mentioned Esther and Danielle, even when their names appeared on his phone screen more often than hers.
He no longer hid the texting.
The screen would glow in his hands while he sat across from her. His lips would curve slightly at messages she could not see. Sometimes he would type long responses, pause, reread them, and type again.
“Church planning,” he would say if she looked up.
She nodded.
Of course.
Church.
He had grown even more distant.
His routine did not change, but the air around him did. He fel
