Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Remembering I

Time, we believe, moves linearly. From one event to another, cause leads to effect. But memory is anything but linear. Rather, it builds on itself in a great spiraling web, each idea leading to three others, which branch into an interconnected labyrinth of recollection.

I tell you this so that you will understand. Understand what is to come, understand what has happened, and understand what I mean when I say: I was lost in my own mind.

Mercifully, we can start at the beginning.

My father was a locksmith. His face is one of the first things to return to me. Round and broad, enough of a beard to prove his age, enough of a smile to prove his youth. He taught me everything he could about tumblers and keys, about the fine metal teeth and detailed mechanisms in every important door.

But his daughter didn't have a talent for making locks. She had a talent for picking them.