pang

At holidays or graduations or milestone birthdays, we’d joke about phantom hunger pangs, gesturing to the empty spot where the foil tray should’ve been.

When she brought up her daughter, she felt a sudden pang and her voice broke.

“Of course, I don’t believe that. I have pangs of longing for my home state every day, especially fruits!”

We watched her take the medication, then experience what followed: painful cramping, pangs of guilt, waves of relief and the realization she now bore a new, lifelong emotional scar that wasn’t caused by her mother.

He wasn’t the first person to experience the cold pang of isolation or to fall in love with somebody so deeply that the only thing to do is regret it.