A survivor who only feels breaks; a survivor who only calculates disappears into ice.

And Nora and I, without ever deciding it, split the two impossible jobs between us.

She carried the feeling, all of it, enough for both of us, so that I was free to go cold without losing my soul, because I knew hers was keeping the warmth for both of us.

And I carried the calculation, all of it, so that she was free to stay soft and human without our being destroyed, because she knew mine was keeping us alive.

We were two halves of a single survivor, and the reason we both came out the other side not only alive but whole — she still tender enough to become a nurse, I still human enough to write this down — is that neither of us ever had to be the whole survivor alone.