The Red Garden

by Alice Hoffman

Hallie thought about manna, how you had to be ready to receive what you were given.

“You should come home.” Harry Partridge would have been firmer but he knew that if you tugged too hard on someone who was beginning to wander, they might just bolt and run.

He had no idea that the universe could be found in a single instant, a drop of water, a blade of grass, a leaf of an apple tree.

That was the country she was in most of the time, a place where people heard what she said but not what she meant. She wanted to be known, but no one knew her.

From then on when she thought of anguish, Mattie would think of the way he had dipped his head to glance away, as if the world was much too vast and wide, and the only thing contained within it was loneliness.

She said she wanted a man like that, someone who understood sorrow, not someone who caused it.

At first it seemed that he believed Sara would return, but as the years went by I understood that his loyalty asked for no reward, and that love comes in unexpected forms. His wish was small, as hers had been—merely to be beside her. As for me, I already knew I would never get what I wanted.

A story can still entrance people even while the world is falling apart.

The only way to fight evil is with joy, Azurine had written. Forget everything we’ve ever been taught.

Now, when Kate came skittering back to the table, they let her take a bite, even though some people might say it was best for children to eat only simple things. In their experience, nothing was simple.