audrey’s Reviews > Annihilation > Status Update

“My husband had had an inner life that went beyond his gregarious exterior, and if I had known enough to let him inside my guard, I might have understood this fact…He created his share of our problems—by pushing me too hard, by wanting too much, by trying to see something in me that didn’t exist. But I could have met him partway and retained my sovereignty. And now it was too late.”

“…the brightness washed over me in unending waves, and connected me to the earth, the water, the trees, the air, as I opened up and kept on opening.”

“There were thousands of “dead” spaces like the lot I had observed, thousands of transitional environments that no one saw, that have been rendered invisible because they were not “of use.” Anything could inhabit them for a time without anybody noticing.”

“I didn’t tell my husband my walk had a destination because I wanted to keep the lot for myself. There are so many things couples do from habit and because they’re expected to, and I didn’t mind those rituals. Sometimes I even enjoyed them. But I needed to be selfish about that patch of urban wilderness.”

“There were no reasons so mighty that they could override the desire to be in accord with the tides and the passage of seasons and the rhythms underlying everything around me.”