“It’s a curious thing, time, isn’t it?” she said.

I nodded. 

“It’s so mysterious yet fundamental to our lives. We rely on it for travel and trade; on the internet computers need to agree on time so that messages can be reconstructed in the right order. But we don’t really understand what it is. What’s funny, though is that we know it’s related to gravity, because the heavier an object is, the slower time moves for it. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah,” I said. 

She picked up a pocket watch and dangled it in front of me, a little above my eye level so that I had to lift my head a little to watch it. 

“And these funny little things that you can focus on – that’s right – they measure time, but what are they really measuring? The back and forth of a quartz crystal? A nucleus falling from one energy state to a lower one? What does any of that have to do with time slowing and sinking when it gets heavier and heavier, like your eyelids are doing right now?”

I blinked. My eyes were starting to feel heavy. 

“But remember, as you get heavier and heavier, time is slowing down for you, so you can start closing your eyes and drift off into trance, but not yet – because even though it will only take a second, your body and eyes are now so heavy, that second is going to last so long . . .”

She was right. My thoughts were slowing down, I seemed to have been staring at the watch for hours. I was so heavy. I could feel myself falling, but it was taking forever. 

“So heavy, eyes wanting to close, so desperate to drop and sink into trance, but the second is stretching on and on. On and on.”

So heavy . . .

“On the edge of trance.”

Head so fuzzy and cloudy. 

“Wanting to close your eyes and drift down.”

Yes. Down. 

She put her hand on my forehead. “So heavy and relaxed now,” she said. 

My whole awareness was concentrated on my sleepy, heavy eyes. I was still looking at the watch, but I was no longer seeing it. My brain simply wasn’t processing it. 

Suddenly she put her hand over my eyes, closing them herself. “And drop,” she said. 

I was gone.