In another time, another place, clocks round and round, and evening changed into morning. How long, she thought, as seabirds followed the irresistable winds of the sea, could I remain unchanged... Visions of the past three days traded places like jagged glass in a kaleidoscopes, three days which somehow refused to conform to her precious perspective of reality. Either she could change her memories or she could change herself. No, to change her memories would be to change herself. She could change her vision of the past, change its shape to fit its beliefs. Or she could change what she believed about the universe, and maybe all of reality in general. The sand was hot under her feet, and they already longed for the cool reassurance of the ocean to wrap its cold tendrils around them, and she could stand still and let the waves rock her body gently back and forth. Who am I, and where do I begin. The words mouthed silently from her still form, standing lonely, erect in the sunlit brilliance she found only at the ocean, when the greenish water flowed forever towards the horizon. The strange little man had been walking back and forth, head turned upwards as though following the path of the seabirds. She wanted to laugh and to cry in the same moment upon looking at him, because he looked like a five year old child, and something in his eyes made him appear older than time itself. Irrationally she had found herself wondering how many lives she had lived. With an odd grin he had pulled out a multicoloured umbrella that disagreed sharply with his green pants and cream-coloured vest.

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