The wave that arrives months later

This is the part that convinces people they are going backwards, so it is worth saying plainly.

A long stretch on the restoration side, weeks of ordinary Tuesdays, and then something small pulls you straight back over. A song. A voicemail you forgot was there. Their handwriting. A birthday, or the first time the seasons come round again to the same weather.

That is a crossing, not a relapse. It does not undo the weeks before it and it does not mean the weeks before it were false.

Later on, the stretches on the restoration side get longer. The crossings do not stop. In most people they never entirely stop, and that is not a problem to be solved.