Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping.

While I pride myself on trying to be creative in all areas of my life, I have occasionally gone overboard, like the time I decided to bring to a party a salad that I constructed, on a huge rattan platter, to look like a miniature scale model of the Gardens of Babylon.

Little critters fried like fritters come out crunchy and divine.

For fun? Maybe evil is an art form.

Indeed, she often wondered if she were dead, or dying from the inside out, and that was the root of her calm, the reason she could surrender her character.

Just follow that one road the whole time!... I hope they don't get lost, I'm so bad at giving directions.

I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out.