A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off.

“So that’s the rule to remember, the whole quilt is much more important than any single square.”

The spate of cleaning eased the passage of many days.

What an unreliable thing is time—when I want it to fly, the hours stick to me like glue. And what a changeable thing, too. Time is the twine to tie our lives into parcels of years and months. Or a rubber band stretched to suit our fancy. Time can be the pretty ribbon in a little girl’s hair. Or the lines in your face, stealing your youthful colour and your hair.” He sighed and smiled sadly. “But in the end, time is a noose around the neck, strangling slowly.”

“There is always hope—hope enough to balance our despair. Or we would be lost.”