Carried: Charles Bonnet Syndrome (C.B.S.)

It runs as a loneliness held in place by distrust, an emotional and social isolation kept because the world does not feel trustworthy enough to form real, sustaining bonds within. The isolation is protective and it is the very thing that keeps the loneliness fed. The clinical name is a shape, not a diagnosis. What it asks for is one bond risked with someone who proves, slowly, trustworthy.

I'm lonely, and I don't trust the world enough to let anyone close enough to fix it.

Bartleby, who answered every offer of connection with a quiet preferring not to, walling himself off so completely that the loneliness became total. The form implies a task: to prefer, once, to let someone in.