Every life I start with her, my original sin. I know myself through her.

When I turned fifteen, I remember my father gave me a credit card which I was allowed to use for two things: emergencies and books.

And I thought about the color and I realized what blue it was. It was the soft and changeable, essential blue of a well-worn pair of pants. Pants = Love

Tibby's wish would be to hold on to the idea of love even in the face of darkest doubt. Because that was the way in which she failed. Not once, but again and again.

She loved her mother and depended on her mother, and yet every single word her mother said annoyed her.

I did the searching and remembering, she did the disappearing and the forgetting.

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