'You'll stay here, for the remainder of your treatment.'
Rain flies down directly towards him, as he lies on his back and reclines in the cushioned cot. It drums on the glass dome around him and fills the air with soft vibrations. He's soon asleep.
Time sickness. All that back and forth between worlds. It accumulates like sand in an oyster. Occasionally it needs to be ejected in places like this. But not as a pearl, because a fast release might kill him. It needs to be slow.
In the presence of the great black hole that swirls in the sky above, the excess time leeches from his body slowly. In the universe beyond the limits of this planet, years are passing in days. He must endure this state of things and make ready to emerge into a world he no longer recognises. But he's used to that by now.
Paddy Dobson
22nd October 2021