pickings off the wall.

“Let’s play ‘never.’”
“How do you play ‘never’?”
“I say how long from now and you think about it. You think long and hard.”
“Think long and hard about what?”
“Time. You think as far ahead as you can.”
“Okay.”
“And when you’re done imagining into the future, I’ll show you how you were mistaken.”
“Mistaken?”
“Yes. Mistaken. Because you’ll think some of them will come back. Or at least one. And, in actual fact, none of them will.”
“None?”
“None.”
“Is that a fact?”
“Well, so far I’ve not been proved wrong.”