Time went backwards today, and I missed it. I was doing something else when my countdown-timer icon blinked orange. When I tabbed over, the window said: “Clock ran backwards. Updates stopped.â€?

Maybe it’s me. It’s what I’ve hoped for, what I prayed for until I stopped believing. But it’s not gone back far enough, and I didn’t notice when it did.

Maybe I’m too much part of Time. Maybe trying to wish it back while I’m still living it is like trying to unlock a box with the key that’s locked inside.

And maybe it’s having a little effect. Just enough to make the gears catch. Maybe I’ve become the piece of grit that wears it down. Maybe that’s why everything else is going so wrong around me.

Maybe this isn’t the first time Time has slipped back half a second; a thousand times, a million, how many times in five years? And never back far enough that I could be where I wasn’t, never far enough that I could save her. Just back far enough to break, often enough to end the world.

Christ, I hope my computer’s broken.