“Time,” the mortal answered.

Silence hung, the mortal on his couch tablet in hand, the room in its state of slow surrender to entropy.  Finally, the voice responded.

“Explain,” intoned the entity.

The mortal sighed, snoozed his tablet, and sat up on the couch.  “It’s not like I don’t understand what is happening to me.  I’d seen Bill Murray in Groundhog Day before this all started.  You know what the most interesting part of that movie was?”

Silence again before a “No,” that hung on long enough to imply that the entity may not be aware what a groundhog was much less Bill Murray.

“It’s how he spent all his time learning skills.  He mastered playing piano, flipping cards.  I’ve wanted to learn those things but well, there’s just never time.  Sure, I have to either run out and buy a keyboard or go to the Hampton Inn with the piano in the lobby to play, but I’ve got time to make that trip.”

“You do not feel constrained?” quizzed the entity.

The mortal rubbed the back of his head.  “I mean there are somethings I can’t do, the flight to New Zealand takes long enough that the reset hits just as I’m touching down, and I don’t have enough in my savings to higher a private jet, and it being Saturday means I can’t get a bank to give me a loan, but there’s so much I can do and that I never did simply because I didn’t have the time.”  The mortal paused for a moment and spread his hands out before him, looking towards the ceiling.  “It’s honestly liberating.”

“You do not miss others, contact?”

“I mean, the people are here with me and sure it can be hard to get some of them to open up but people are are even more interesting than some activity or skill.  When you have the time, there’s just so much about them that you can explore and get to know.”

Contemplative silence hung again.  “This has been informative, re-considerations will have to be made.”

“Hey!” The mortal blurted with an urgency he’d long forgotten how to cope with.  “Umm,” he stuttered getting control of himself again, “if you’re going to end the loop can I ask for a few hundred cycles warning?”

Contemplation followed by “Why?”

“Well, the other best part of that Groundhog Day movie was that Bill Murray learned how to help everyone in that one day.  If I’m going to go back, I’d like to do that for the people here.  Like I said, they’re all really interesting when you have the time to get to know them.  I’d like to make one great day for them.”