To be abandoned like that! Shut out when you most need to be loved.

For me, the hero’s journey is not the voyage from weakness to strength. The true hero’s journey is the voyage from strength to weakness.

And then I screwed up and the Colonel screwed up and Takumi screwed up and she slipped through our fingers.

Headline?" he asked. "'Swing Set Needs Home,'" I said. "'Desperately Lonely Swing Set Needs Loving Home,'" he said. "'Lonely, Vaguely Pedophilic Swing Set Seeks the Butts of Children,'" I said.

The world went on, as it does, without my full participation, and I only woke up from the reverie when someone said my name.

I knew that I would know more dead people. The bodies pile up. Could there be a space in my memory for each of them, or would I forget a little of Alaska every day for the rest of my life?

"You are fairly smart," I said after a while. "You are fairly good at compliments," he answered.