Sick and twisted.""Sick and twisted and very, very sad.""I've never seen you like this.""I want Billowy too. And the espadrilles. And the sunglasses. And you.

If there is any truth in the world, it lies when I’m with you.

You’re so good at finding paradoxes, and once you’ve fished one out from your bag of easy notions you think you’ve got your answer. But a paradox is never an answer, it’s just a fractured truth, a wisp of meaning without legs.

Intelligent? He was more than intelligent. What you two had had everything and nothing to do with intelligence. He was good, and you were both lucky to have found each other, because you too are good.

A thought raced through my mind: Would my descendants know what was spoken on this very piazzetta today? Would anyone? Or would it dissolve into thin air, as I found part of me wishing it would? Would they know how close to the brink their fate stood on this day on this piazzetta? The thought amused me and gave me the necessary distance to face the remainder of this day.