That small thing, in retrospect, was where the whole transformation began.

As long as I was watching the clock, I was still a hired man serving out an hour.

The moment I stopped, I was simply a person sitting with another person, and the hour stopped being something to endure and became something I did not want to end.

I have noticed since that this is often how the important shifts in a life announce themselves, not in some dramatic moment of decision, but in a small unconscious act you only understand the meaning of much later.

I did not decide, that first afternoon, to start loving Nora.