[ Michel lifts his sleeve quickly, though not fast enough to stop more water from splashing his face. He gives Ganymede a look like an affronted cat — and about as serious — before he shakes his head to shed the stray drops and wipes his face.

It's a painful question. Are the words comforting to Ganymede? They had enough meaning to him to put them in his profile, and Michel had studied them in curiosity, like a piece of a riddle. A habit remaining from other forums, perhaps; a tendency to look at traces left behind, like finding the beauty in the spectrum of light scattered through broken glass. ]

There's a similar quote from an American writer. "You can never go home again."

[ Less elegant, but perhaps closer to the heart of the matter. Michel leans back a little in the boat, his expression statue-still again. ]

I believe... it's true. Time does not stand still. No person remains unchanged, even though they might try. The place you imagine returning to ceases to exist the moment you take your eyes from it.

[ Whether it's a hopeful thought or a nihilistic one, he supposes, depends on whether the listener envisions anything before them. Otherwise, the future is empty, and the past, an illusion shaped like memory. ]