___A man from a slate quarry saw leaves turn their colors and sensed his imminent death. He paced his bags and drove south, beyond the foliage.
___The trees there changed, so he drove away again. This continued for a while until he came to the sea, where he chartered a boat for the rest of his life.
___Feeling at home among the gray edges of waves, sunrise and its colors tricked him. He sailed to the North Pole and built an igloo large enough for the boat, the walls inside looking like rock.
___On a day after a thaw he stepped outside to find a red balloon, shriveled by its loss of air. It had drifted from a child's hand in a North American suburb to find him. He kicked it rustling across the ice, the sound startled him, and he collapsed, his weak heart giving out.
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