The grass he walked through was new and a sweet smell clung to his clothes. There was blue dye on his hands from the wild irises... that the color of the sky was a shade that could never be replicated in any photograph, just as Heaven could never be seen from the confines of Earth.

There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.

My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who's different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.

I was beginning to understand.My grandmother's love was cold because she was afraid of things;that was why everything had to be perfect.

I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream.

When I walk, I walk with you. Where I go, you're with me always.

The evening had turned sweet and blue.