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21 " Is it like a place? Where is Tarnation?"O'Malley said, "Think it's in Oklahoma, Bill. "
― Allie Ray , Holler
22 " When you're burning inside and burning outside, hot and crazy, that's the time---that's always the time---when a traveling revivalist preacher-man come to town. "
23 " Because more than sorry for him, I felt a terrible sameness with Llewellyn, itching like an old scar. I knew something about the pain and the longing that so clearly filled the man--swole up inside him like the bruises on his hands; fit to burst, fit to bleed, fit at last to be said and down away with. I knew too well the ache of loving somebody who just plain don't love you, and never will. "
24 " He said, "Go and sin no more."And let me tell you, I was gonna. "
25 " I almost shot him. "
26 " Eliza, put the gun down. Baby, the kick on that would knock you right over--""It'll knock you over harder. "
27 " I loved you all my life," he said. "Now ain't I a fool? "
28 " Still I loved him, gasping-sobs-in-my-pillow hard, all along. "
29 " It didn't feel as much like sinning as I thought it would. "
30 " Well. Don't let a good thing slip away. The heart wants what the heart wants, after all."Well, the heart didn't want Beau Hanger. "
31 " I never was much for ghost stories. Never have been too easily spooked. I believed that a body that abides in the Spirit didn't have to trouble over that. What I didn't know then was how human evil drives harder, and closer; how the evil one man will do to another is enough to give you chills and keep you up at night. "
32 " I knew what my mama did, but I never feared her ghost. "
33 " Everybody's got their sins, in secret or out in the open. Everybody's got their sins, and you find it in you to stomach looking at them just the same. "
34 " Eliza, if I asked you to marry me right now, would you say yes?"I crossed my arms. "No, but---""Then I ain't asking. I don't want you like this. I want you to love me, and I ain't having you any other way. "
35 " Well. You look like shit," she said."I love you, too, baby."Her eyes narrowed harder. "I reckon there's nothing to say to all this.""Don't fret now, sugar. You'll think of something. You always do. "
36 " I got a mind to say yes," I said. "You ask me to marry you. "
37 " Cause let me tell you, Llewellyn Jackson was a loser.Bigshot bootlegger with nothing to show for it, thieving off of his own people to the everlasting shame of his dead father. "