#randomharvest

"The past is not one separate place. It is many, many places, and they are always ready to rise into the present. One minute it is the 1590's, the next is the 1920s. And it is all related. It is all the accumulation of time. It builds up and builds up and can catch you violently off guard at any moment. The past resides inside the present, repeating, hiccupping, reminding you of all the -stuff that no longer is.- It bleeds out from road signs and plaques on park benches and songs and surnames and faces and the covers of books. Sometimes just the sight of a tree or a sunset can smack you with the power of every tree or sunset you have ever seen and there is no way to protect yourself. There is no possible way of living in a world without books or trees or sunsets. There just isn't.

'Are you OK?', Camille asks me, her hand resting on the cover of her book, so only the word 'tender' is visible. 'Yes, I'm still getting these headaches, though,''