He’d only ever seen a gun once, a smaller one on the hip of that old deputy, a gun he’d always figured was more for show. He stuffed a fistful of deadly rounds in his pocket, thinking how each one could end an individual life, and understanding why such things were forbidden. Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.

A seed of hope caught a taste of moisture. Some wishful kernel buried deep, where he was loathe to acknowledge it lest it poison or choke him, began to sprout.

When there’s only God to blame, we forgive him. When it’s our fellow man, we destroy him.

Even in the darkness, his smile threw shadows.

Statistics were magic like this: they could tell you with near-certainty that a thing would occur, without a hint of when or where.

It’s easy to forgo distractions and to not accumulate things when you have a larger goal on the horizon.

That's the problem with the truth," Darcy said. "Liars and honest men both claim to have it.