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81 " How could I have known that goodbye meant goodbye? Hard thoughts are held in small words. "
― Erika Swyler , The Book of Speculation
82 " We would bury ourselves in books until flesh and paper became one and ink and blood at last ran together. "
83 " He began to pick the trumps he desired, their words—happiness set beside her ear, home by her feet. He surrounded her with hope, each card a wish. "
84 " S- Some info on your names. What's with the paywall in this stuff? Should I be concerned you're looking into dead women? P.S. My dad called. Gutter's falling off your place. Let's get you drunk. Pick me up at 8:00. -A "
85 " The roof is rotting. This is something I should have known to fix years ago, should have known needed maintaining, but no one told me. I was left a house and a sister, with no instructions on either. "
86 " He did not know what it meant to lie or that soon he would lie to the very woman teaching him the art of deception. "
87 " I turn on the computer to do a cursory search for Ryzhkova. The name pings back thousands of results. Shit. Of course it would be the Smith of Russian names. Too much information is just as bad as none at all. "
88 " I saw that book in the lot and I needed a better look at it. I overbid terribly, but I needed to be certain I had it. Purely speculation, of course—nobody was allowed to get a good close look before bidding—but I thought there was a chance it was my book. The way Treasure Island is Marie’s. But the moment I touched it I knew it wasn’t mine. I knew it wasn’t for selling, either, not at Churchwarry and Son. I can’t explain it other than to say that it was begging to be given away. "
89 " She'd learned that to cling too tightly was to strangle. "
90 " When Amos sat up, Peabody pounded him on the back until he coughed out water. “I have fed you, clothed you, given you all I ever possessed. And you would walk away from me.” A "
91 " How strange it was that cleave had two such disparate meanings; she’d known to cut and tear, but now she knew to cling. She rested her cheek in the valley between his shoulder and chest. Amos "
92 " She takes a breath and holds it. In middle school the girls used to have contests to see who could hold their breath the longest; Alice once held it until she fainted. "
93 " We drink in relative silence, which is me being nice. "
94 " We carry our families like anchors, rooting us in storms, making sure we never drift from where and who we are. We carry our families within us the way we carry our breath underwater, keeping us afloat, keeping us alive. I "
95 " I hadn't noticed before, but his fingers are like mine, gnawed to the hearts. "
96 " She is not in my books, and what kind of man would choose words that are already written over what might still be? "
97 " My family is a little dark…But even Pandora’s box had hope "