She’d learned how to close doors. She’d learned to open them gently and close them carefully. And when you learned to close doors, she reflected as she watched the pair of lovers, in a way you learned to open and close everything else correctly. Time seemed to stretch out indefinitely when you did things properly. It froze, halted, stopped suddenly, like a clock that has wound down. Then the small things, the necessary things, even the ordinary, everyday things, especially those one performed with one’s hands—how mysterious that man could do such beautiful things with his hands—were revealed
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