Alan (the Lone Librarian on semi-hiatus)) Teder’s Reviews > Down Cemetery Road > Status Update

But remembering him now, remembering he’d never grow old at all, she wanted to cry, or shout, or hurt someone. Larkin, she thought. He’d always been fond of Philip Larkin. Give me your arm, old toad; Help me down Cemetery Road . . . He’d been helped down Cemetery Road, all right, but it hadn’t been time for him to go, and he hadn’t expected such help.
[From [author:Philip Larkin|64716] "Toads Revisited."]

Outside the window bright settlements flashed into view, then lost themselves in the dark nowhere that swallowed up the past. This was a well-known effect of travelling at night: you felt nostalgic for snug, safe places you’d never visited, and never would.

For two weeks she could lie in this administrative limbo, suspended in a pause between acts. All she had to do was whatever she was told, which would be nothing more taxing than drinking this, swallowing that; trying to get some sleep now, dear. Limbo was for those denied heaven. It was also a loophole for those otherwise destined for hell.

Her considered view was that from the age of about three children were incredibly dull, until they got to twelve or so, at which point they became unspeakable.