My son’s joke made me laugh too late

Dear Delyara, He said something genuinely funny at dinner and everyone laughed straight away. I laughed too, but half a second later than the rest of them, and I noticed it immediately. That tiny delay made me feel unexpectedly sad. Because I knew what it was. Tiredness. The kind that makes you slightly slow to arrive in your own life. The body is there, the face is there, the response comes, but not quite in time. Like part of me is still catching up from whatever the day took before I sat down at the table. No one else noticed. I did. And once I noticed, I could feel how far behind myself I had been all day.