Out of the Easy

by Ruta Sepetys

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

He nodded. “Decisions, they shape our destiny.” Without opening the book, he began to recite from David Copperfield. “‘Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else . . .’” I nodded and finished it with him. “‘These pages must show.’”

Decisions, they shape our destiny.

But the stain was still there. Some things just won’t go away, no matter how hard you scrub.

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever . . . it will never pass into nothingness.”

“They got everything that money can buy, their bank accounts are fat, but they ain’t happy. They ain’t ever gone be happy. You know why? They soul broke. And money can’t fix that, no sir.

Sometimes we set off down a road thinkin’ we’re goin’ one place and we end up another. But that’s okay. The important thing is to start.

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.

I love you the more in that I believe you have liked me for my own sake and for nothing else.