I understand now that the vulnerability I've always felt
is the greatest strength a person can have.
You can't experience life without feeling life.
What I've learned is that being vulnerable to somebody you love
is not a weakness, it's a strength.
--Elisabeth Shue
How he kept it together long enough to stride normally from the mess hall Avi Stasi would never be sure. He could feel a gaping maw opening in his chest, as if a jagged blade had been thrust through his sternum, into his heart, and twisted.
By the time he reached the shower room, he was bent over, at a dead run, in a cold sweat, heart pounding, hyperventilating, endlessly grateful that he had encountered none of his crewmates along the way. Ducking into the empty room, Stasi slammed the bolt home behind him, locking out anyone else in unlikely search of a mid-shift shower.
Stripping off his clothes, he moved under the pounding spray. What on earth had he been thinking? Actually, he hadn't been thinking at all. He'd never made a decision to tell his story to Liza, the words had just erupted out of him, unbidden. Memories he'd forced from his conscious mind had bubbled to the surface and spewed forth involuntarily.
Gasping, body wracking sobs shook his frame as he slid down to sit under the shower, endless rivers of tears pouring from his eyes to be washed away by the scalding water.