He stretched his arm so that his wrist slid out from the sleeve of his new white cloak and he looked at
his watch.
It was running backward.
So it was true! Chronos lived backward. The course of his life was opposite to that of the rest of the
universe. The flag tugged into the wind because he was perceiving it backward. He felt the wind going
back toward its source-but that did not change its actual effect.
He could not communicate with his former self, because he was now in a different frame. People were
geared to perceive things of their own frame; they simply could not relate to something outside it. He
himself had not seen what there was there to see, standing on the spot marked X: himself as Chronos. So
now he knew how it was. In fact, he reminded himself, that was no stranger out there; it was Nortonnormal. He had followed normal time until he took the Hourglass and turned it over to start the sand of
his term of office. Now he followed the new time. He could relate to the rest of the world, perceiving it
clearly, because he understood it. His new life continued forward-in reverse.