44
" Dabbling in the sandbox gives Rabbit a small headache. Over at the pavilion the rubber thump of Roofball and the click of checkers call to his memory, and the forgotten smell of that narrow plastic ribbon you braid bracelets and whistlechains out of and of glue and of the sweat on the handles on athletic equipment is blown down by a breeze laced with children's murmuring. He feels the truth: the thing that has left his life has left irrevocably; no search would recover it. No flight would reach it. It was here, beneath the town, in these smells and these voices, forever behind him. The fullness ends when we give Nature her ransom, when we make children for her. Then she is through with us, and we become, first inside, and then outside, junk. Flower stalks. "
― John Updike , Rabbit, Run
52
" Quin reached out, spun her back to him, and pulled her into his arms, held her tight, so tight that she could hardly breathe. " I need you," he said, low and fierce, into her hair. " Oh, G-d, Olivia, how did I ever live without you?" She reached up, pulled his face down to hers. " I'm yours, for good or ill." There was a little click as the door to the ballroom closed, but Olivia paid no mind. " You're the missing piece of me," Quin said. " You make me feel. "