III. Time
(A possible recount by Hannibal to Clarice on the nature of time and second chances)
One night,
I had a dream.
I dreamt that time had,
Indeed,
Run backwards.
Back to when I was a boy,
And she was still with me.
..
We grew up together in this dream,
Along with my parents,
Who made the wise decision to
Leave the old castle
When the war was getting
Too close to our doorstep.
..
In this dream,
I merely looked out the window of a plane
To the bombs falling below,
Rather than the window of a hunter's lodge
To the bombs raining from above.
..
She and I grew up together,
Wildly content and happy.
She wished me well when
I married a woman of old Florentine lineage who,
Frankly,
Looked just like you.
..
I had two children by this woman,
And made prominent careers in law and medicine,
A true Renaissance man and scholar,
Fulfilling all duties and expectations.
..
But this dream was not to be.
For you see,
As I grew into my inborn status,
So apart did she and I become.
She was married off to a nobleman
Who wished for a part of my estate.
Family machinations sundered
What goodwill was left between.
..
And as I vied for power,
My own wife drifted from me,
Until we were married only in name,
With only my crafts to keep me sane.
..
If fate was not already cruel,
My own children would also fall,
My daughter to a heist gone wrong,
My son to suicidal homicide.
..
Perhaps it is merciful this is only a dream,
That I may wake to still be by your side,
To time still running forwards,
And a universe still ever expanding.
..
While I may always miss a past that is gone,
Such a past never guarantees a brighter future.
My present affairs are already richly content,
There is little desire to re-test what may have been.