Arcadia Awakens Quotes

“»Eines Tages«, sagte sie, »fange ich Träume ein wie Schmetterlinge.«
»Und dann?«, fragte er.
»Lege ich sie zwischen die Seiten dicker Bücher und presse sie zu Worten.«
»Was, wenn jemand immer nur von dir träumt?«
»Dann sind wir beide vielleicht schon Worte in einem Buch. Zwei Namen zwischen all den anderen.«”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“One day," she said, "I'll catch dreams like butterflies."
"And then what?" he asked.
"Then I'll put them between the pages of big, fat books and press them until they're words."
"Suppose there's someone who never dreams of anything but you?"
"Maybe then we're both words in a book. Two names among all the others.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“...it isn’t other people who decide if you feel alone, it’s yourself. Only I didn’t know that yet.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Do you still have the revolver you were going to shoot me with?” asked the old man on the telephone.
“Yes, I have it here.”
“How much ammunition?”
“No idea. How do I find out?”
He explained. In the moonlight, she felt the bulges of the cartridges in the cylinder. “Six,” she said.
“And you don’t know how to use it?”
“No.”
“But you are American.”
“Ha-ha.”
“If you do as I say, and go about it cleverly, I hope you won’t need it. Unless Cesare Carnevare crosses your path, in which case please be kind enough to shoot him.”
“How about the concordat?”
He laughed. “Shoot him when no one’s looking.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“She struggled to find words, and then all the anger she had been damming up for the last few minutes broke out. It made no difference that none of what had happened was his fault. Nor did the fact that he’d saved her, or what he had sacrificed to do it. He was a Carnevare. He was one of them. And he was preventing her from going to her sister’s aid when Zoe needed her.
“The girl that Cesare killed … ,” she snapped, “her name was Lilia. She … she loved my sister. Do you understand that? Zoe has just lost the person who probably meant more to her than anything else. And Lilia sacrificed herself for me. How can you think that—”
“I’d have done the same thing,” he interrupted her calmly. “I’d have died for you up on that mountain.”
That took her breath away. For a moment it deprived her not only of her self-control, but of the ability to utter another syllable.
After endless seconds, she stammered, “That—that’s nonsense.”
“It’s the truth.” He turned his head and looked at her. “I’m in love with you, Rosa.”
She hesitated, fighting for composure.
“Oh, hell,” she whispered.
He smiled sadly.
Then neither of them said anything, until finally she took his cell phone and called Zoe.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“She sighed. “Go on, say it. I shouldn’t have come.”
“You shouldn’t have come.” He looked sideways at her and gave her a fleeting grin. “But I’m glad you did.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Other girls carried tasers or pepper spray for safety. Rosa had bought herself a stapler in a hardware store on the corner of Baltic and Clinton Streets. Her thinking was simple. An electric shock is nasty but leaves no marks. With her method, though, she could put two or three staples into any attacker’s body. Then he’d have to stop and decide whether to tangle with her or start getting the staples out of his skin.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“He clasped her fingers, not so she could pull him up but clearly because he wanted to touch them. She wanted it too, way too much, and then he stood there right in front of her, the abyss beside them, and she could smell his skin and his hair, and let go of his hand, even though she secretly wanted something quite different.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“How are you?”
Rosa shrugged her shoulders. “My sister turned into a giant snake last night. And your cousin Tano—”
“Second cousin.”
“He was there too. He was a tiger. I recognized him from his eyes. Then I fainted.” She looked at him. “How does that sound?”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Clearly we have all the time in the world,” she said crossly. “Feel free to start way back with the dinosaurs—just as long as you get to the Carnevares and Alcantaras sometime.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“It would have been only fair to tell him so. To explain, right now, that she was the bloody Titanic whose wake would carry him under, if he didn’t jump into the lifeboat and head for the open sea.
Instead, he leaned over to kiss her.
She waited. Hesitated. Then withdrew her head before their lips could touch. For a split second he looked offended, but then he smiled, blinked at the sun, and said, “Well, when it gets to that point, I want to be there.”
“When what gets to what point?”
“When you’re not looking at everyone else as if they’d just declared war on you. And when you realize”—he pointed across the ravine—“that things may look like the end of the world but the world still goes on, over there on the other side. Maybe just one really large step would cross it.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Did I promise you too much?”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Well, when it gets to that point, I want to be there.

When what gets to what point?

When you're not looking at everyone else as if they'd just declared war on you. And when you realise that things may look like the end of the world but the world still goes on, over there on the other side.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“He shook his head. "Have you ever wondered who's in the gaps in the crowd?"
She glanced at him in surprise. Maybe she'd been wrong, and he was more than just a little odd.
"Gaps in the crowd?" she repeated.
"If there are a lot of people all in one place, a hundred or a thousand or more, there'll still be some empty spaces. Gaps right at the front. Or in the middle. Or on the outside. You just have to look carefully to see them." He shifted gears as two heavy trucks appeared side by side ahead of them. "Those are the gaps in the crowd. And if you look very closely, you notice that they're moving about. Just like the people around them."
Rosa pressed her lips together and said, "Hmm," as if she understood what he was talking about.
"They're weird," he said.
"The gaps?"
"Because they're really not empty."
"No?"
"No, they aren't. They're always there, and in other places, too. Around us, but invisible. It's only in a crowd you can see them. No one can move into the places where the gaps are.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“You just have to look hard. Then you’ll find what you’re after.”
It sounded almost as if he were trying to help her in her search for the unique, awkward magic of the place. And she realized he must have thought the same, the first time he ever drove along this road to nowhere, maybe every time he returned. Even today. Maybe everyone, in the face of this void, was searching for something to cling to. Alessandro perhaps even a little more than other people. In the last few minutes she’d discovered more thoughtfulness in him than she’d have thought possible, more desire for answers. Thinking this, it was difficult to look away from him and turn her eyes on what lay ahead of them again.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Ahead of them lay an expressway access road. Except that there were no guardrails or markings. No road signs either. And no other vehicles at all. Yet the road, following a narrow curve, led to a broad ribbon of asphalt tracing a straight line all the way to the horizon. Again, it had no lines painted on it and there were no signs. Rosa thought there would have been space for four traffic lanes on it, but it was covered with the dust and loose soil that had blown over it.
No other sign of life. Just the two of them, the car, and a forgotten road to nowhere.
“Where does it go?”
“To the end of the world.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“Would you make a right just up ahead?” he asked.
“And then?”
“I’ll show you something.”
“More mysteries.”
“There’s nothing mysterious about it.”
“You’re the mystery.”
He smiled. “Me?”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“She slowly turned her head and looked at him. At his attractive, open face that could turn dark and reserved within seconds. The curve of his lips. The green eyes that looked into her a little too far and that she couldn’t defend herself against.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens

“How much ammunition?”
“No idea. How do I find out?” He explained.
In the moonlight, she felt the bulges of the cartridges in the cylinder. “Six,” she said. “And you don’t know how to use it?”
“No.”
“But you are American.”
“Ha-ha.”

Meyer, Kai (2012-02-14). Arcadia Awakens (p. 375). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.”
― Kai Meyer, Arcadia Awakens