Borrowed Time

PROLOGUE

It began more than three years ago, on a golden evening of high summer. You know that, of course. You know all the wheres and whens. But not the whys. Not yet, at any rate. I do. I understand the entire sequence of cause and effect leading from that day to this. I can encompass it like a bird of prey circling in the sky above the intervening landscape. I can see the whole winding length of the road I followed from then to now. There were no exits I could have taken, no junctions where I could have left the route. It was always bound to end like this. A future becomes inevitable the moment it touches the present.

You know it all, or think you do. And now you say you want to understand. Very well. Clearly, I must try to explain. Not to excuse; not to mitigate; not to exonerate. Merely to explain. Merely to tell the whole truth for the first time. As I will. As I have to. Then you will understand. For the same reason. You say you want the truth. Very well. You shall have it.