That was how dishonesty and betrayal started, not in big lies but in small secrets.

Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh. -An-mei

Yet part of me also thinks the whole idea makes perfect sense. The three of us, leaving our differences behind, stepping on the plane together, sitting side by side, lifting off, moving West to reach the East.

For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me.

Love is tricky. It is never mundane or daily. You can never get used to it. You have to walk with it, then let it walk with you. You can never balk. It moves you like the tide. It takes you out to sea, then lays you on the beach again. Today's struggling pain is the foundation for a certain stride through the heavens. You can run from it but you can never say no. It includes everyone.

Even though I was young, I could see the pain of the flesh and the worth of the pain.

You must think for yourself, what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying. -An-mei