“Once upon a time, time used to fly. She and Arthur were forever late to train stations and appointments, chasing clocks like a runaway tissue on the breeze, Birdie’s skirt flapping as they ran. ‘Where did it go?’ they used to say to one another. When Arthur and Rose left, time changed. Birdie has sat through never-ending nights. Days that forgot to draw in. Suns that refused to set and midnights that lingered. Time is all Birdie has had for so long, her hands are sticky with it. Hours and years are clogged up under her wedding band. A whole decade under her thumbnail.”