Girl of Lore Quotes

“Jackie’s mom, Dr. Seward, enjoyed gardening when she wasn’t at her psychiatry office, so the yard overflowed with azaleas, and hydrangeas, goldmound spirea, leucothoe, and lemongrass. She grew mint, basil, thyme, and rosemary in pots on their back porch, and sometimes Jackie and Mina would put sprigs of mint in their iced tea and pretend to be fancy.”
― Melanie Dale, Girl of Lore

“The town of London, Georgia, was on a grid, with the old-fashioned town square in the center. Smack in the middle of the square, the courthouse rose above the other buildings. Constructed of red brick, with white ionic columns lining the front, the courthouse sported a clock tower with a copper dome that had developed a green patina after years of oxidation. The residents jokingly called it the “The Tower of London” for the historic castle in London, England. But while the English tower housed the Crown Jewels, the Georgian tower graced the building where citizens of London paid their parking tickets. The only Beefeaters at this Tower of London were the retirees who ate steak and eggs and played checkers at the diner nearby.
Established by a few founding families who had sailed over from its namesake city a couple hundred years ago seeking religious freedom, London leaned into its Anglophile origin. On the corner of the town square sat the Olde Towne Shoppe— and that was “Shoppe” with an E at the end— which sold everything from “Werewolf of London” tees to English breakfast teas.
Rumors abounded about the religion the founding families had needed freedom to practice, and people whispered that the families hadn’t just brought old-world culture and Christianity but also old-world demons. The blood-sucking, fangy ones. Londoners didn’t put any stock in the vampire tales, but they provided great fodder for tourism, much like trolls in Norway and Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The Shoppe took tourists on walking tours called “Legends of London: A Bite on the Town,” sharing stories of the macabre and selling fruit punch in pouches designed to look like blood bags from the Red Cross.
Yet there were other stories that floated down from generation to generation— ones that weren’t touted on the tours, about mysterious deaths and other odd happenings in their town. Londoners whispered of people disappearing overnight and secret rooms behind bookshelves where the undead hid their victims. When Mina’s third-grade teacher had passed away suddenly halfway through the year, kids swore weeks later that they’d seen her lurking around the playground at night. Mina knew this was all just folklore but still loved to hear the stories. Maybe because she considered herself a mystery of London.”
― Melanie Dale, Girl of Lore

“I think every emergency vehicle in town wee-ooh-wee-oohed to whatever was happening--- a car crash or something. Be careful on your way to school."
Car crash? Mina thought back to her dream, which was already fading, as dreams do. "Another reason to continue my commitment to the pedestrian life."
"You are going to need to practice driving at some point---"
"Can't crash if I don't drive. Safety first, Mom.”
― Melanie Dale, Girl of Lore