[It would be obvious, except that Erika's forcing herself not to watch him. She wants to. She wants to be sure of whatever she can be, have something to wave off the clench of worry when she hears him start to talk, before it even happens. But would that be what happened? Or would she just take it as an excuse to stop the story short of what she wants him to understand?

Sometimes you sacrifice the little wants for the big wants.]

It was that car accident. A brain injury. I don't know if you... [...know, how things like that work; even she doesn't, completely. The brain is a complicated organ.] ...Imagine a machine. If you bump some gears loose, that tiny misalignment gets worse and worse over time until the whole thing breaks down. Except it's brain cells instead of gears...sort of.

[She rubs her sleeve between her fingers; back and forth, back and forth.]

I got these - they were sort of like seizures. They'd put me in the hospital, and every time it got a little worse.