A Soul in the World
ShortStory 4,853 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"There’s nothing quieter than the sound of dreams not coming true. The moment when reality sinks in and Gwen realizes she’s never going to have the one thing she’s been yearning for since high school—the thing she made so much space in her life to accommodate—has almost no soundtrack."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Uncanny, where the author gets the click.