There are three hundred and sixty trades in this world, and any one of them, mastered to its limits, can reach the heavens. Boatmen can ferry passengers across the Milky Way, because the Milky Way is a river too. Locksmiths can lock disasters out, because the Gate of Heaven is a gate as well. Lamp makers dare to carry ladders up into the dusk and replace the sun’s wick. Funeral messengers can deliver news of death to tomorrow, and follow the Yellow Springs to guide lost souls back to the world of the living. Pawnbrokers can take lifespans, talents, marriages, and even unborn children as collateral, as long as their customers are willing to repay them slowly in the future. Shen Yu inherited the humblest craft of all: mending. He mends clocks, umbrellas, and walls. He can also mend memories, roads, erased Thursdays, and a city that is vanishing from the map. Everything he repairs becomes a regular customer of the Once in a While Shop.
