“The girls moved aimlessly to and fro, slowly advancing from the trees toward the slope, laughing, reaching out to touch each other as they came, and talking with gestures as they made fine circles and designs in the air. I wondered what they could be discussing that made them so happy. They looked like Stormie Jones and Jody Plute. I had wanted so much to have these girls grow up, but God froze them in time instead. Embarrassed by my sentimental thoughts, I turned away. When the distraction had passed and I looked up again, the distant figures were gone. There is a strange thing about the dimming vision of aging eyes. What cannot be seen clearly, the mind fills in more vividly than reality. It was almost dark. The time had come to collect the dogs and go home.”

—Thomas Starzl