PART ONE

DEATH

"We say the hour of death cannot be forecast,

but when we say this

we imagine that hour as placed in

an obscure

and

distant

future.

It never occurs to us

that it has any connection with the day already begun

or that

death

could arrive

this same afternoon,

this afternoon

which is so certain

and which has every hour

filled

in advance."

~Marcel Proust