Tomorrow would be the Ice Princess pageant and a new princess would be chosen for the year to come. On the day after, Elisa would give up her crown and walk out onto the frozen lake, like every princess before her, back to the start of the pageant almost a hundred years before.

Jayce stood, shrugged out of her bicycle shirt and racing pants until she was sky-clad, brown as a walnut and naked to the world. The Twelve exchanged glances. They had expected no formal rites today.

even an astronaut can find time to be / the best man at his only brother's wedding / before accelerating toward the speed of light / in a tiny capsule composed of thin aluminum . . .