I'm trying to remember how this story begins. It seems only minutes ago when I last heard it. And yet, like eons since I was last the teller. Maybe beginnings are the wrong way to start. Maybe endings are more appropriate. There were several endings as we all know now. Things didn't just die out in one great cataclysm. nor did each ending seem like an ending at the time. Endings simply followed endings like leaves falling from a tree. Until autumn turned to winter turned to a new spring.