Run Away

by Harlan Coben

gave an awkward smile, the kind where you’re trying but it’s just not in you.

“Point is, when a junkie needs a fix, you could put NFL defensemen in her way and she’d break through.

You want a real person—a caring, empathic person—to be your physician. You want a person who sees you as a fellow human being who is scared and hurting and in need of reassurance and comfort.

He was trying to hold on, but he was floating away.

“What were they two doing at Rocco’s, huh? Let’s say I did do it. Not really, but like pretend, like what’s the word…hypodermically, let’s say I did it.”

As the years had gone on, she realized that her gut worked better than she imagined. The guys who gave her the creeps off the bat? They always ended up being creeps. The guys, the very few guys, who gave off this kind of positive aura? They ended up being trustworthy.

And bad stays. Bad doesn’t go away. You bury bad, it digs itself out. You throw bad in the middle of the ocean, it comes back at you like a tidal wave.”

We think all religions are crazy—except our own.”

As you grow older, especially when you are stuck in a routine, very few new or vibrant memories are being laid and so time flies by. That’s why when a child looks back on summer, it seemed to last forever. For adults, it’s barely a blink.