7
" On a second note, though, I have something to say about pain. There are lots of kinds of pain. Pain of smashing your fingers in a car door, pains of loosing a baby, pain of failing a test. But in their own little ways, these pains are all agonizing. Which is sad, and yet, happy, if you really think about it. If we never lost our car keys, or stepped in gum, or had a bad hair day, what kind of people would we be? In a word? Boring. We wouldn't be passionate; we wouldn't know it was exciting to get pregnant, or score an A on a final. So that's why, today at least, I am grateful for pain. Because it's part of what makes me the whacky, goofy, jaded, person that I am. Peace. "
― Alysha Speer
10
" Since you haven’t got a name,” he said. “I guess you can pick one for yourself. Would you like to pick one for me to write down?”
She stopped rocking and looked at him. “I can do that? It’s legal and everything?”
He smiled. “It’s a free country again,” he said. “At least in theory.”
She nodded. “And when I pick a name it can be any name I want?”
He nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“Victor,” he said. “Vic, for short.”
“Okay,” she said, leaning forward and taking the pad from under his large thing hands. “How do you spell that?”
He spelled it and she wrote it down. Her handwriting was perfectly small and legible. “Can I be Victor, too?” she said, looking up from the pad.
He smirked. “It’s a boy’s name,” he said. “You’re a girl. You have to add an i and an a to the end if you want to make it a girl’s name.”
She looked down at the name she had written and added the letters i and a to the end. “Victoria,” she said, passing the notepad back to the cop.
“Hello, Victoria,” he said, smiling, taking the pad and pen back and presenting his hand for a shake. “It’s nice to meet you, officially. "
― Benjamin R. Smith , Atlas
