Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.

...even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.

No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.

But no matter how much planning you do, one tiny miscalculation, one moment of distraction, can end it all in an instant.

Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs--those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.

Things usually work out in the end." "What if they don't?" "That just means you haven't come to the end yet.