Time

Geologists say that millions of years ago all the continents were connected. The Americas, Africa and Asia were bunched up in one large cluster and the rest of earth was covered by water. Slowly, the land masses spread apart and moved across the globe in a phenomenon known as continental drift. The continents still are moving at the same speed today. It's just that we can't see the movement because it is so slow.

Massive changes occur all around us that are imperceptible because of their speed. Two weeks ago I returned to my childhood home. I didn't stay long. In fact, I just stopped my car for a moment on the street in front of the small house in which I grew up. Two children were playing on the small front yard that seemed enormous to me when I was a child. As I sat in my car I realized how much things do change. I remembered my friend Alan and me running and chasing one another from one side of the yard to the other. Our jackets were unzipped and our noses were running but we didn't care.

As I watched those boys and pondered how it seemed like an eternity since I was their age an old woman walked toward my car. I recognized her as Mrs. O'Donnell, the neighbor who treated me so kindly years ago. I got out to say hello to her. Her expression was unchanged. I told her who I was and asked her to recall the many happy hours we spent together on her patio. A flicker of recognition lit in her eyes. She tilted her head sideways as if to get another angle on me. Finally, she said that she always knew I would turn out to be a pervert. Sitting there in my car watching those innocent boys playing in the yard – it was disgusting, she said.

Before I could protest she turned and walked away toward her house. I was devastated. She was dear to me and I had to put things right between us. So I got back in my car and drove slowly forward. She was standing at her mail box looking through the envelopes. I pulled up right beside her and blasted my car horn and sped off.

In my rearview mirror I could see my childhood home becoming smaller and more distant. And I could see Mrs. O'Donnell's mail fluttering down, landing like doves and gathering around her motionless body.