âYou have an appointment.â
His fingers slide deftly up either side of the silk stretch of fabric, twisting slightly in an imitation of the Mobius turn, and he wonders whether by some freak of physics any object can fall forever through the sky in perfect weightless balance. At nine and change meters per second squared, there must be a moment between the roof and the ground where everything rests in equilibrium. Whoâs to say it canât last?
âSo do you.â
But instead of turning to return the favor, to preen Sherlock for death the way heâs being carefully smoothed into shape, Jim retains his position and stares into the mirror to watch his face flashed back at him twofold. Nothing could matter less, after all, than how theyâll look - where look is defined by the way the light reflects off their surfaces and penetrates to the retina and then to the brain of some undeserving observer as they spin through the air to an ending no one else can understand. There will be no observers.Â
âIs that what youâre wearing?â
Sherlock scoffs, and Jim simply grins as the knot solidifies in the hollow of his throat, as sure and as strong as the crux of a noose. As though heâd wear anything else. The first time must mirror the last; the end must touch the beginning. Theyâre one, not two, and their last, free-falling moments together will reflect the unitary circularity of time itself. I am you and you are me and everything, everything is each of us.
âYouâre ready.â
He is ready. And when he stands on the roof and stretches out his hand - thank you, bless you - there is no suspense, no tension, no uncertainty in the grip that binds them. They clasp hands and together run and take the flying leap off the rooftop, over the street, into the emptiness that only they can fill. Somewhere between the sky and the grinding, sudden stop they find their peace, and in that instant the knot tightens, the strings of time and place cinch together, and theyâre bound to a moment - a second, a day, a year - that will always be theirs, as long as there are calendars to mark the endless repetition of you and I and we.
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