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She could hear his heart again and she was immediately thrown by the beauty of it. The songs of his soul; the harmony within him: It was incredible.
“Unfold your heart. Sharpen your ears. And never say no to the world when it asks you to dance.”
The morning arrived the way Alice imagined a whisper would: in tendrils of gray and threads of gold, quietly, quietly. The sky was illuminated with great care and deliberation, and she leaned back to watch it bloom.
And so, as the story goes, Ferenwood folk were born from the tears that watered the earth and grew them into being. The Surrender was how they gave thanks. At twelve they surrendered themselves and their gifts and, in return, took on a task—the purpose of which was always to help someone or someplace in need. They gave back to the world and, in the process, they grew up. This was when their lives truly began.
Best to introduce yourself to patience now, so that it might find you when you call upon it later.”
It was so much easier to fight for another than it was to fight for oneself.)
Narrow-mindedness will only get you as far as Nowhere, and once you’re there, you’re lost forever.”
“Why must you look like the rest of us? Why do you have to be the one to change? Change the way we see. Don’t change the way you are.”
Laughter was a silk that would soften even the roughest moments.
Alice knew that being different would always be difficult; she knew that there was no magic that would erase narrow-mindedness or iron out the inequities in life. But Alice was also beginning to learn that life was never lived in absolutes. People would both love her and rebuff her; they would show both kindness and prejudice. The simple truth was that Alice would always be different—but to be different was to be extraordinary, and to be extraordinary was an adventure. It no longer mattered how the world saw her; what mattered was how Alice saw herself.
