"Please stop," I said. "You're upsetting the black Santas."

"And how are you feeling?" asked Patrick."Oh, I'm grand." Augustus Waters smiled with a corner of his mouth. "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friend."

I couldn't hear a thing in the world but you. And it was so cold then, and so silent, and I loved you so much. Now it's hot and dead quiet again, and I love you still.

It's hard to believe in coincidence, but it's even harder to believe in anything else.

I kept it for myself like a keepsake, as if sharing the memory might lead to its dissipation.

I just want the pleasure of noticing these things at a safe distance.

Okay, maybe I'm not such a shitty writer. But I can't pull my ideas together, Van Houten. My thoughts are stars I can't fathom into constellations.