Clumpings of deadly letters disappear onto the flat surfaces of a pair of symmetric anti-clocks, who eat each others time. There might be worlds inside these clocks, or the time and words they absorb might simply be fuel or spare parts, or just empty spaces where their last meal used to be.     In fact, this world was twice as large as it had been before. There was twice as much time, twice as many houses, and many more useless things too.