She Had Died At Age Twelve, And

...and The Distance Between Them, Millimeters Only, The Space Of A Breath, Opened Up And Deepened, Became A Cavern At Whose Edge He Stood.

A Moment Might Be A Thousand Different Things.

Either Things Grow And Change Or They Die.

This Is What He Knew That Paul Didn't: The World Was Precarious And Sometimes Cruel. He'd Had To Fight Hard To Achieve What Paul Simply Took For Granted.

That There Were Other Worlds, Invisible, Unknown, Beyond Imagination Even, Was A Revelation To Him.