It was their mothers, long ago. Tibby noted with joy that all four of them were wearing jeans.

But certain souls cohere. It's rare but possible. But it takes two powerful wills to make it so.

Your problem isn't the problem, it's your attitude about the problem.

If you didn't have a choice, you had to make a choice. If you didn't have options, you made some. You couldn't just let this world happen to you... he didn't see eternity. He saw this girl and this moment and this one slim chance.

Her vision of the world under the water represented a beautiful stillness, a version of heaven. It was the lost city of Lena, her alternate universe, the life she yearned for but didn't get to have.

The bottom had arrived. She crashed against it, but it brought no sense of closure or understanding. She just lay there at the bottom looking up. She knew there must be a very tiny circle of light up there somewhere, but just now she couldn’t see it.

He was the strangest of strangers in that he was also her oldest friend.