… but was it?  We didn’t have to look about us to answer no. It was earlier than early inside us. We were wide open.  The one looked at the other and realized that our ordinary everyday life had vanished for the time being.  If this had been true of only one of us at first, now it was true for both.  It had leaped across like lightning.  Suddenly there was a strange shimmer in the air.

I wished he would say: I can see it on you.
He looked at me and said, beyond all reason: ‘I can see it on you.’
I felt myself burn. Don’t say any more, I wished, and he didn’t.
What was to come of this?
Something is approaching.
Per was no longer his usual self.
What had we done to each other?
Without saying anything more, we knew: It is today.