Chapter 3

"If they were doomed to live in such a world, they would want it covered in salt, to kill all the life, make it antiseptic. They owed nothing to the rest of Earth, but they owed this kindness to you. They did unto others, as they would have others do unto them."

"I never realized--I was sure I couldn't be.... I've built my life around it," she said.

"I know," I said with a regretful sigh. "So many people have."

And yet, I still wonder if it might not have happened at all--if I hadn't winked. I wonder if that pesty psychiatrist has been right, all along?

END

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