The Photograph
The photograph has faded, its original Kodachrome brightness bleached and gilded by time. M thrusts it in my hand in a frame set with nazar beads, for you to remember, she says. Thank you. So much. I don’t add, I didn’t need reminding. I hadn’t forgotten. Three girls, the one in the middle has her chin up, a confident smile, her arm around a skinny angular creature whose face is partially shadowed by her dark hair and her hand around the waist of a third, looking distractedly to the left of the camera, a slight smile on her face. I take off my sunglasses and look into her eyes. I try to recognise her, the girl who was my most trusted friend, to bring something back from the past. I’ve spent my life learning to forget and move on. I hadn’t forgotten, but what I remember and what she might want to commemorate and bond over, they are unlikely to be the same things. I say nothing. We both look at the photograph. She sighs, a soft luxuriant sigh. Time flies and goes away. Time loves to fly, she says.
Why Time Flies
The perception of time is mathematical. Thus, as we age time accelerates on a logarithmic scale. The physics of time acceleration measures time through the brain’s ability to process information, and the amount of information it has to process. Time speeds up. The first year of my friendship with M and D was a fifth of our lives, a sixtieth now. The perception of duration is mathematical and it is also psychological. The silence stretches out between us. Time melts and oozes, the afternoon feels endless. Perhaps this visit was a mistake. Outside the patio doors a swallow is swooping down to drink water from the pool. I spot a lizard darting through the bougainvillea. It’s very peaceful here in M’s mansion in the mountains.
My condolences, I say. My deepest condolences.
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