The “are you awake?” texts. The screenshots. The voice notes that start calm and end ugly. She answers with the same steady tone every time, like she’s done training for this. Like she’s been appointed. She knows how to carry other people’s sadness without dropping it. She knows how to say the right sentence that gets them through the next ten minutes. She knows how to be useful. Then the door closes.

Photo by tyler mcauley on 500px