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What a strange vortex the years suddenly seemed. The jump from ten to twenty-five was a lifetime. The leap from twenty-five to forty was but a long weekend.
Words like “strange” reduced men and women to their oddities. To flat, unfeeling objects to be studied and dismissed. People deserved more than that.
“Just because it doesn’t make sense to you, doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense,”
When Irene had asked him to go, he’d been relieved too. It was exhausting being responsible for someone else’s happiness.
“Well, if you believe in evil, you gotta believe in good. Can’t have one without the other.”
“Your belief is not required for something to be true,”
A smile is a language all its own.”
“Must we try everything to know something is wonderful?” she asked softly. “I don’t think so.”
“Saying that something doesn’t make sense is lazy talk,” he continued. “It’s the speech of the defeated. Too many cops do that. My job is to find the sense in it. To make sense of the incomprehensible.”
“The truth is, the harder we are, the easier we shatter. It takes some softness to absorb life’s blows.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he muttered.
The first time he calls her Sweetheart! 🤩
“You are not odd, Dani,” he said. “Not in the way you mean. You always say that. But you are strong and good and wise. And you are kind. Those things are not odd. They are precious.”
“Oh, my darling. Forgive me,” she begged softly. He gazed at her, dumbfounded. She’d called him “darling.”
First time she calls him Darling! 🤩
“Of course things of value take extra care. That’s what gives them their value
“Humans are complex creatures. We want to belong, but we can’t stand to be the same. How in the world do you force equity on humankind, when we try at every turn to differentiate ourselves from each other?
At this point, everything felt like a clue . . . and a cruel joke.
“It’s the reason people secretly adore villains. Villains make them feel better about themselves.
“That reminds me. I thought if we got caught, we were going to fake a tryst,” she scolded him. “I feel swindled.” Malone laughed out loud.
He was reminded that she was young and he was old, she was sweet and he was salt, she was innocent and he was . . . not.
When every choice was rotten, you had to make a rotten choice.
a marriage, a true marriage, required constant mending.
Unemployment rose. Minimum wage rose too, though no one was working, so it was mostly a useless gesture. Dani was weary of useless gestures. Problems didn’t get solved, they just got covered up, repackaged, or shoved to the side.
Suddenly his nose was stinging, and his chest ached, and he cursed the grief that would not . . . let . . . him . . . be.
“Loving is the greatest burden of all. The heaviest burden of all.
“It is the things we most want to put down, the things that are hardest to carry, to endure, that give our lives the most meaning. Sometimes our burdens are taken from us. And sometimes we walk away from them. Sometimes, not having that burden might even feel good. We might feel relief. But it doesn’t take long to realize that the things we call burdens are most often ballast. Our burdens give weight to everything we do. They shed light on all that we are. And the moment we lose them . . . we lose everything.”
It is a burden to love anyone. And it is a burden to be loved.
her mismatched eyes were turbulent. Blue sky and dark earth, the whole wide world in one small face.
The plight of the unknown was the theme of this book. Unknown people, unknown pain, unknown acts of heroism, and unknown acts of horror.
