I Am Pilgrim

by Terry Hayes

and despite my many affairs with other substances, intelligence has always been my real drug.

the world doesn’t change in front of your eyes; it changes behind your back.

They say that when men are dying in battle their fingers nearly always twist into the soil, trying to hold on to the earth and all the pain and love it holds.

As she read on, two pages in his best handwriting, she was taught a lesson many other parents have learned—it’s usually your children that wound you the most ferociously.

I didn’t know it, but apparently time passed slowly when you were waiting for the end of the world.