Nine minutes to One, part two – Like Her

And as he grew he dreamt of the mountains. Vast ranges of freedom in which his ideas would fly and soar through lake-filled valleys in the high passes, and his heart would beat in a different way, as though the body she fed had no place in those heights.

And as he grew he grew to be like her. Not in everything, but in so many ways. His young self watched and copied, imprinting itself with the rules that led to the smiles, the hugs, the squeals of joy. When he began he knew he was studying what was happening out there, on the clock face, knew that there was something else that wasn’t the studying. But later that faded, and there was just the studying; and the studying became him.

And then he copied much more of her, and at…