Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.

Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.

Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing.

When you are in pain, a moment is an eternity.

In life, the hardest decisions often have to be made more than once. But each time, it gets easier.

I hate them!' she cried. 'It's not fair!' 'No, it isn't,' Frederick said gently. 'I can't do it all!' 'No. You can't.' After a long moment he said, 'But you can do what you can.' 'And what if that isn't enough?' Frederick held her shoulders and took a step back. He looked in her eyes. 'Enough for what?' 'For my family.' 'What more could they ask for than what you've given?

He waved to the city and said good-bye. The city responded by carrying on the way it always did, traffic moving forward uninterrupted, without slowing, as if it were trying to demonstrate its permanence and show him it would still be there if he ever wanted to return. That promise was the best and only thing he could ask of it.