" Well,’ she says, ‘shit happens. Life is a party, and parties weren’t meant to last.’
He looks sideways at her, a little startled. ‘Is that F. Scott Fitzgerald?’
‘Prince,’ she says. ‘I can’t get over how gorgeous those mountains are. When the sun goes down I don’t think I’ll look. My heart might break. And the only reason I’m here is because those men raped me and threw me out in the rain. I guess everything happens for a reason.’
Billy has heard the saying many times before and it always makes him mad. ‘I don’t believe that. I won’t believe that.’
‘Okay. I’m sorry.’ She sounds a little scared. ‘I didn’t mean to—’
‘Believing that would mean believing that someone or something up the line was more important than my sister. Same with Albie Stark. Taco. Johnny Capps, who’ll never walk again. There’s nothing reasonable about any of that.’
She doesn’t answer. When he looks at her she’s looking down at her tightly clasped hands and there are tears on her cheeks.
‘Jesus, Alice, I didn’t mean to make you cry.’
‘You didn’t,’ she says, brushing away the evidence on her cheeks.
‘It’s just that if there’s a God, he’s doing a piss poor job.’
Alice points ahead, at the blue teeth of the Rockies. ‘If there’s a God, He made those.’
Well, Billy thinks, girl’s got a point. "

― Stephen King , Billy Summers