Untouchable Only To Him

Summary

For five years of marriage, my husband and I lived with fifteen feet of open air between us.

It was the rule. He had been diagnosed with severe sensory overload syndrome—a violent tactile defensiveness that triggered acute panic and nausea whenever another human being breached his perimeter. And so we drifted through our home like two parallel lines drawn on the same floor plan, forever visible to each other, never destined to intersect.

At dinner, he ate at the dining table while I sat on a stool by the kitchen island.