Violence up close has a smell. Like copper blood and charcoal burning.

I learned a lot that night. For example, that part of being the magician's assistant means coming face-to-face with illusion. That invisibility is really just knotting your body in a certain way and letting the black curtain fall over you. That people don't vanish into thin air; that when you can't find someone, it's because you've been misdirected to look elsewhere.

eskimos maybe? believed stars were holes in the sky where people who died could peek through at you

What you notice is the loneliness. Daniel started to isolate himself, because it hurt less than being pushed away.

There is no one truth. There’s only what happened, based on how you perceive it.

Sometimes there aren't words. The silence between us is flung wide as an ocean. But I manage to reach across it, to wrap my arms around him.

The process of growing up was nothing more than figuring out what doors hadn't yet been slammed in your face.