Home > Work > I Am the Messenger
61 " I think of how she lives alone, just like me, and how she never had any real family, and how she only has sex with people. She never lets any love get in the way. I think she had a family once, but it was one of those beat-the-crap-out-of-each-other situations. There's no shortage of them around here. I think she loved them, and all they ever did was hurt her. "
― Markus Zusak , I Am the Messenger
62 " I suppose he'll die soon. I'm expecting it, like you do for a dog that's seventeen. There's no way to know how I'll react. He'll have faced his own placid death and slipped without a sound inside himself. Mostly, I imagine I'll crouch there at the door, fall onto him, and cry hard into the stench of his fur. I'll wait for him to wake up, but he won't. I'll bury him. I'll carry him outside, feeling his warmth turn to cold as the horizon frays and falls down in my backyard. For now, though, he's okay. I can see him breathing. He just smells like he's dead. "
63 " It's funny how when you watch people from a long distance, it all seems voiceless. It's like watching a silent movie. You guess what people say. You watch their mouths move and imagine the sounds of their feet hitting the ground. You wonder what they're talking about and, even more so, what they might be thinking "
64 " He's most likely robbing the bank as a paycheck on the world for winning the ugliness prize at his local fete three years running. "
65 " I'm twenty years old and look at me-- there isn't a thing I want to do "
66 " She closes the door completely, and I crouch there. I allow myself to fall forward and rest my head on the door frame. My breath bleeds. My heartbeat drowns my ears. "
67 " When we move apart, she looks at me again, till a small tear lifts itself up in her eye. It trips out to find a wrinkle and follows it down. "
68 " We're silent now, both waiting, till I remind myself that I'm the older one and should therefore initiate conversation. But I don't. I don't want to waste this girl with idle chitchat. She's beautiful. "
69 " If I’m ever going to be okay, I’ll have to earn it. "
70 " I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness. "
71 " you need life in your life. "
72 " Never leave anything out to dry as the sun comes up for the new year. "
73 " But when they laugh, you can see the world in their eyes. "
74 " I only know it would have been nice to be making love instead of attempting murder. "
75 " At first, he only continues walking. Only when I look down on our feet do I realize that we're actually going nowhere. It's the world that moves - the streets, the air, and the dark patches of inner sky. "
76 " I called back, but not loud enough, probably. I don't like making noise in public "
77 " Then the music begins and we can both hear the slow, quiet, sweet desperation of a song I won’t mention. Imagine the softest, toughest, most beautiful song you know, and you’ve got it. "
78 " My soul needs yours "
79 " I was always reading books when I should have been doing math and the rest of it. "
80 " I'd wanted to stay on that porch with him until the sun shone bright on both of us, but I didn't. I stood up and walked down the steps. I'd rather chase the sun than wait for it. "