At the End of the Matinee

by Keiichirō Hirano

“People think that only the future can be changed, but in fact, the future is continually changing the past. The past can and does change. It’s exquisitely sensitive and delicately balanced.”

Every time they were wounded in the future, again and again they would return in memory to look into each other’s eyes, embraced by the darkness of that night.

“People think that only the future can be changed, but in fact, the future is continually changing the past. The past can and does change. It’s exquisitely sensitive and delicately balanced.”

After a pause, he answered in a tone of near resignation, “I love you, Yoko, and that’s the reality of my life. The me that doesn’t love you no longer exists. He isn’t real.”