Chapters Five and Six: Needs and a Clock / A Prism of Time

Over breakfast, Tom makes a declaration: "All I have are needs and a clock." David listens quietly, as he always does—offering love and steadiness in the face of Tom's unraveling thoughts. In this small, quiet chapter, David suggests a new way forward: write your truth, even if only for me.   In Chapter Six, the story deepens. Tom reflects on his earlier novels—"teenagers run amok," he calls them—and opens a window into the long arc of his life with David. Thirty years of love. Thirty years of weathering grief, of disappearing into one another… and slowly re-emerging.   Then the call comes.   Claire tells him to come home. Fast. He's in London. The clock is ticking. The portal opens.