今夕何夕

Emily: The advice I give you now is the advice I remember receiving from myself at your age in this moment, so I cannot be certain where it actually originated from.

Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.

OK! Thank you, Emily Prime. It has been an honor to meet you and a joy to emerge from your 3rd generation birth canal.

Emily: I opened an art gallery of anonymous memories, and it was there that I met my husband. He was a clone as well, from the same source as David, the boy in the tube I felt I had known all my life. Only now his beautiful sparkly eyes were lit with the mind of his Prime: a David from over 400 years ago. He died suddenly, and David's line was permanently ended.

That is the thing about the present, Emily Prime. You only appreciate it when it is the past. I harvested his memories and they still bring me happiness. This is one my favorite of his memories and I cannot explain why. He is descending a staircase and sees a large plant blowing in the wind. Flopping its fronds together in a sort of plant applause. I have viewed this memory over 6,000 times.

Emily Prime: You missed him.

Emily: I do not have the mental or emotional capacity to deal with his loss. But sometimes, I sit in a chair late at night and quietly feel very bad. When the night is at its most quiet, I can hear death.