Nao claimed to have written it just for her, and while Ruth knew this was absurd, she decided she would go along with the conceit.

her supernatural ability to slow time,

Catching it destroys it, and I felt like I was disappearing, too.

Now, with my Mu-Mu, one does not need to bother with such messy things, because my little spiders can neatly undo you if you stop wanting to be.

I hate email. It’s so slow. On email it’s never now. It’s always then, which is why it’s so easy to get lazy and let your inbox fill up.

and you will be nowhere in particular,

but in a Buddhist instant, you know? I was especially fascinated with

Time itself is being, he wrote, and all being is time . . . In essence, everything in the entire universe is intimately linked with each other as moments in time, continuous and separate.

She explained that she couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of almost karmic connection with the girl and her father. The diary had washed up on Ruth’s shoreline, after all.