“Explain it again,” my friend Chelsea insisted before I left for my vacation.

“No talking. There’s no talking allowed.”

“You mean ‘aloud.’”

I laughed as I finished packing my suitcase.

“Can you do that?” she asked.

“Do what?”

“Laugh?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think that’s ever come up. Most of the time, I don’t walk around like an idiot, giggling for no reason.”

“I would,” she said. “I’d go fucking crazy if someone told me I couldn’t talk for ten days.”

“You’d go crazy after one day,” I agreed, knowing my friend’s limits. “But I look forward to... Read More