Slow Dance in Purgatory Quotes

“I’ve lost my mind

Your love’s made me blind

I can’t even speak

Your love’s made me weak



But if you watch me I’ll show you

And if you let me I’ll hold you

So the words that I can’t say

You’ll hear anyway

You’ll know how much I long for you

How every note’s a song for you

You’ll know

How I just want to breathe you in

And lose myself inside your skin

I’ll hold you and you’ll know”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Being with you always feels like flying,” Maggie whispered.
“And being with you brings me back to Earth.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“wanting her made him selfish, but loving her demanded he deny himself.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“If it is pixie dust, I guess that makes me Peter Pan - the boy who never grows up."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Energy isn't really created or destroyed, it's simply redirected.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“There will be no talk of regrets today. There will be no remorse or second thoughts; today we belong to no one or nothing but each other. Tomorrow will come soon enough and it will take care of itself."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Every moment with you has made the last fifty years worth it."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Good literature should make us weep.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Oh Johnny, how I miss you,

When you’re gone I lose my mind

I’ve been lookin’ but I just can’t seem to find

My Johnny, Oh Johnny…”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“The halls had long since expelled the energetic swarm of youthful humanity, and the din of lockers and laughter had long since settled into stillness. It was his least favorite time of the day. He could lose himself in their conversations, lurk behind them as they ran, as they danced, as they embraced one another. He could sit in on many a lecture, solve the most challenging equations, recite the first chapter of a Tale of Two Cities word for word, and as long as life filled the halls, he could pretend he lived among them. But when they were gone he was utterly and completely alone. Alone as he had been day after day, year after year, decade after decade. There was a time he had descended into madness - but time had brought him out again. What good is being crazy if there is no one who can deem you insane? Or for that matter - care whether you are normal? Insanity was exhausting and futile. So was pain. For a time, the despair was so great that he begged for oblivion. But time had taken even that from him. Now he simply wished to feel anything at all. And so he continued on, waiting for redemption.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Maybe she had seen one of her ghostie moments, as she called them. Giving them a cute name made her feel more normal and made the episodes less jarring.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“There had been other times when Maggie had seen people who others could not, but with the exception of her mom that long ago morning, the people she saw had been unaware of her, almost as if they weren’t really there at all, like Maggie was simply watching a re-run of them doing something they had done many times in life. Maggie didn’t know why she could see these little moments caught in time, but she could, and she did.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“About two weeks after she’d been placed in her second foster home, Maggie had seen a little boy playing with miniature cars on the rug in her new room. She had mentioned it to her foster mother, asking her who the little boy was. The woman had locked herself in her room for the rest of the day, and though she’d been kind to Maggie initially, after that she barely looked at her. Apparently there was no little boy. At least there hadn’t been for two years.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“The day after Maggie’s parents died, she’d seen her mother standing beside her bed, looking down at her. For a moment, she had even felt her mother’s hand in her hair, and she forgot that she was alone in the world,”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Maggie, I have never loved a girl...not until you."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Somehow, I think I'm getting the better end of the deal," Maggie murmured

"If only that were true, I wouldn't hate myself every time I give in to my need to be with you."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“There aren't many things I can show you or places I can take you, but I can show you how it feels to fly."

"Being with you always feels like flying," Maggie whispered.

"And being with you brings me back to Earth."

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Don't you think I want you to stay, Maggie? You're all I think about. You're everything I want! Don't you think I'd keep you here with me If I could?"

~Johnny Kinross”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“You’re not lookin’ so good, Sleeping Beauty. We might have to start callin’ you Sleeping Not-so-fine if you don’t snap out of it.

“Thanks, Shad. I’ll definitely call you the next time I’m down so you can kick me twice as hard.”

“Just sayin,’” Shad shrugged”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Okay. Yeah. Sure.” Maggie’s head was spinning. She decided that what had just happened wasn’t any more remarkable than Johnny himself. She couldn’t think about it. It fell under the ‘accept, don’t question’ category. She shoved the miracle into a mental drawer with all the others he had performed and locked it tight.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“They finished the experiment and the attached quiz in silence. As the class came to a close, and the students filed out, Maggie hung back, waiting for the room to empty. When Mr. Marshall saw that she remained behind, he scampered out, as if fearful that the whole embarrassing episode would repeat itself.

Johnny sank down on a stool and looked at her stonily. He knew she was going to scold him, apparently.

“You can’t defend me from the whole cruel world,” she said softly.

“True. But I can defend you in my tiny corner of it.”

“My knight.”

“My lady.”

Maggie smiled at his rejoinder. “Just…please… be careful. What if people start to talk?”

“About what? Ghosts? I’m not worried about that, Maggie.”

“Please don’t do that again. I almost felt bad for that awful little man.”

“That awful little man has been pulling stuff like that for decades, and his father pulled similar stuff for decades before him.” Johnny stood and captured her hands in his. “I can’t stand by while people are cruel to you. I can’t watch you suffer and do nothing. Don’t ask me to.” His expression was fierce and unyielding. They locked gazes for several long seconds. Maggie surrendered first.

“Will you kiss me, please?” Maggie whispered, lifting her hands to clasp them against the nape of his neck and pulling his glorious face to hers.

“Someone could walk in.” His mouth hovered just above hers, his breath tickling her parted lips.

“I don’t care.”

And at that moment, neither did he.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“When did they make this flick?” Johnny sat transfixed by the film playing out in life size beyond the front windshield of the Cadillac. The flickering lights reflected off the hard metal surfaces around the room, creating a constantly changing multi-colored glow that lit up Maggie’s smooth face with blue light. His own face seemed to repel it as if he were watching behind darkened glass.

“I’m not sure exactly. It’s pretty old. Maybe sometime in the 1980’s,” Maggie mused, munching a handful of popcorn.

“Gee – that is old,” Johnny quipped, his voice heavy with irony.

“You made a joke, old man! Good job!” Maggie teased and offered the bag of popcorn to him. He shook his head.

“I’ll have to show you sometime what happens to food when I attempt to eat it”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“Margaret O'Bannon, what in the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. are you doing?" Shad invoked the name of Martin Luther King only when he was truly bowled over. Thankfully, his mouth also went in to hyper drive.

"Wait….you saw him, didn't you? You saw the ghost? Can you see him now? Is he nearby?" Shad went into Ninja stance, his basketball forgotten, bouncing forlornly down the hall. "What did he look like, Mags? Can you see through him? Did he float?" Shad did a couple lunges and karate chops to the left and then the right. Then he glanced in terror up at the ceiling, as if the ghost of Johnny Kinross were waiting to drop over him like a net.

"Shad...calm down!" Maggie tried to interrupt Shad's blithering tirade, but he was moving down the hallway in Ninja squat, arms still high and poised for an attack by a ghost… or anyone with a black belt. Retrieving his basketball, Maggie followed behind him, trying to convince him that Johnny Kinross wasn't going to drag him off.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“So why are you here?” Johnny questioned softly.

“What?” Maggie was still trying to figure out how he had moved so quickly.

“If you could get in trouble, why are you here?” he repeated patiently.

“I wanted to thank you for saving me,” Maggie blurted out. “I would have been seriously hurt or killed.”

“We wouldn’t want that….would we? There’s already one ghost too many around here.”

Maggie gaped at him. Was he joking? “That’s not very funny.”

“No….it’s not, is it?” Johnny looked a little flummoxed, and he ran his hands through his hair, barely disturbing the golden strands. “My conversation skills are a little rusty, I’m afraid.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory

“So what made you think he was a ghost?” Maggie interrupted.

“The next time I saw him it was five years later, and he hadn’t aged at all. Then a few years passed, and I saw him again. He looked exactly the same, same blue jeans and white shirt, same everything right down to the 50s hair do with the duck butt in the back. Pardon the language, Miss Honeycutt.” Gus gave a sheepish grin. “I just didn’t know what else to call it.

“I’m well aware of what a duck’s butt is Gus,” Aunt Irene said primly.

"A duck's butt?" Shad hooted. Rising from his seat he squatted down and waddled around the table, shaking his skinny butt wildly. "That's what this move is called, Maggie, a duck's butt."

"Shadrach, sit down." Gus smiled to soften the reprimand.

Maggie tried not to laugh and ended up snorting instead. Aunt Irene looked at her sharply, and Maggie quickly changed the subject.”
― Amy Harmon, Slow Dance in Purgatory