suffering that only wants to be heard
Sometimes suffering’s point is almost crying out in a high-pitched whine to be heard.
Context
The breastless senior is tormented at lunch by a mosquito-whine no one else can hear — and Lyle reads the private, inaudible-to-others torment as itself a bid for reception. The insight is that some pain isn't asking to be fixed, it's asking to be witnessed; the whine only she can hear is a message with no receiver, and its whole content is the wish for one.