Jasper Jones

by Craig Silvey

there is something emboldening about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping. Like I know something they don’t.

And it happens like that. Like when you first realize that there is no such thing as magic. Or that nothing actually answers your prayers, or really even listens. That cold moment of dismay where your feet are kicked from under you, where you’re disarmed by a shard of knowing.

See, most people you meet, they’ll talk to you through fifty layers of gauze and tinting.

My point is this: the more you have to lose, the braver you are for standing up.