My mind is made up, I thought. It has always been. I want yesterday and today and tomorrow, all with Nikolai in it. You often complain I want too much, he said. Any parent would want what I want, I said. Not necessarily. Any reasonable parent. Your argument doesn’t stand, he said. A reasonable person can still want too much. But a little more time, how can that be called too much? I said, though I knew I risked losing the argument. Are five years considered a little more in a lifetime? Ten? Time is like money. Don’t get into debt by spending what you don’t have, he said.
