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treating the differently alive was not only more interesting than catering to the ordinary human population, it was in many ways a great deal more rewarding.
Greta’s patients could largely be classified under the heading of monstrous—in its descriptive, rather than pejorative, sense: vampires, were-creatures, mummies, banshees, ghouls, bogeymen, the occasional arthritic barrow-wight. She herself was solidly and entirely human,
Humans lived so fast.
she had consulted the one underworld dentist she knew who did veneer and implant work on vampires;
how do you stand it, how do you know you’re not going to make mistakes with no one else there to help you, and he had laughed a little. I don’t, he had said. I don’t know for a fact. But I know that I know how to do this job. I trust in my own skill and experience to help me make good decisions. When it comes right down to it, you must be able to trust yourself, before asking your patients to place their trust in you. If you cannot do that, do not pursue medicine as a career.
Trying to imagine what it would be like to have truly believed in something, truly and honestly experienced faith, was difficult for her. Trying to imagine what it would be like, as a believer, to hear the voice of God was something close to impossible.
keep it secret; keep it safe,
The thought stirred up more fragments of phrase from half-forgotten texts: peace that passeth understanding.
“What’s this for?” “Celebrating,” he said. “Mostly the fact that we’re all still alive, to varying extents. Let us condole the knight; for lambkins, we will live. Come and be sociable.”
