Home > Work > The Story Sisters
21 " If she wanted to enter an otherworld, all she had to do was open a novel. "
― Alice Hoffman , The Story Sisters
22 " He still wanted to believe that people could survive their misfortunes. He believed that was all anyone had. "
23 " Your grand daughter may not be looking for trouble, but trouble is looking for her. "
24 " What people called the truth seemed worthless to her; what was it but a furtive, bruised story to convince yourself life was worth living. "
25 " You don't forget the people you love," she told him. "That's what I've realized. They just get farther away. Like a spyglass turned around. Annie to Pete "
26 " In the human world you had to choose your loyalties carefully. You had to see through to someone's heart. "
27 " ...the summer of the gypsy moths when all the trees in their yard were bare, the leaves chewed by caterpillars. You could hear crunching in the night. You could see silvery cocoon webbing in porch rafter and strung across stop signs. "
28 " ...the eldest who had the misfortune of being too beautiful and had a far off look in her eyes. Madame Cohen had seen what could happen to girls like that, they were picked off like fruit on a tree, devoured by blackbirds. "
29 " Meg was a great reader and was never without a book; while walking to school she often had one open in her hands, so engrossed she would sometimes trip while navigating familiar streets. "
30 " Pete wondered if the endings of things gathered in the corners of a room, hanging down like a spider's web, waiting. "
31 " If you believed in something strongly and gave it enough credence, it could appear right in front of you. Though it had been created in your mind, it would claim a presence in the real world, a monster at your door, a demon pulling at your coat sleeve. "
32 " Natalia refused to let go of her grandchildren. If anything, that was her philosophy. That was the reason she had slapped Claire’s face. “Wake up!” she cried. "
33 " SHE WENT TO see Madame Cohen the next day at her shop at the end of the Rue des Rosiers. Each had sorrows she never discussed with anyone else. Their camaraderie was unusual and rare. Friendships were usually based on trivial matters, played out over games of cards and cups of coffee, but theirs was rooted in sterner stuff, catastrophe and survival. "
34 " Why don’t you prepare the tea for us,” Madame Cohen suggested. This was a part of the interview. People did background checks and extensive questionnaires, but you could tell a great deal more about someone from the way they readied a pot of tea. "
35 " Elv felt consoled. She’d done such terrible things no one could forgive her, except perhaps for another sorrowful creature who understood the effects of human cruelty, who could lie down beside her and know she hadn’t meant any harm. "
36 " Claire’s dog and the cat Elv had rescued from the river had a strange alliance. When they thought no one was at home, they sat together on the couch by the window, peering out at the courtyard. As soon as the key turned in the door, they jumped off the couch so that no one would see their attachment. Dogs and cats had their secrets too. "
37 " Adrian entered her as a candidate for the next training program without consulting her. Elv went to the first session to tell Adrian to mind her own business, then she saw the dog that was supposed to be hers. Once again, it was the ugliest. A standard poodle that had been scalded with boiling water, tied up in a dark room for months. “I don’t know about this one,” Adrian told her. “In all honesty, it might be better to put it out of its misery.” The poodle was hiding under a chair, shaking. Its teeth were chattering. Elv sat on the chair where the poodle was hiding. She didn’t know why she was allowed to be alive. Maybe that was her fate, to know she wasn’t worthy of anything and yet be given another chance. “Fine,” she said to Adrian. “I’ll stay. "
38 " It was the time when the field mice ventured out, after the hawks had settled in the trees but before the owls came to hunt. The sky was now the color Elv liked best - a tender dark blue, falling to earth like ashes. "
39 " Where did he take you?” she asked. She had wanted to ask this question for four years. It had taken that long for the words to come out. Some words drew blood, they cut your tongue, they made you know things you couldn’t unknow. "
40 " Elv felt cold. Claire wrapped her arms around her. There was no way for her to ever thank her sister, no words that would ever do. Something bad had happened to Elv instead of to her. "