Anything Is Possible (Amgash #2)

by Elizabeth Strout

“Did I ever tell you that when the doctor handed you to me, I recognized you?” Angelina looked at her then. She shook her head slightly. “It didn’t happen with the others. Oh, I loved them immediately, of course. But it was different with you. When the doctor said, ‘Take your daughter, Mary,’ I took you and I looked at you, and it was the strangest thing, Angelina, because I thought, Oh, it’s you. It didn’t even seem surprising. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, but I recognized you, honey. I don’t understand why I recognized you, but I did.”

he felt a tiny shudder go through him, as though his soul had a toothache.

All this fell into Jamie’s stomach with the silence of a stone falling into the darkness of a well.

The thought became a dark shape in his lap, as though he was required to hold it there.