She went on because there was no going back.

Good and bad; shade and sunlight, there's but a hair's breath between them. It's all one in the end.

She went on because there was no going back.

As for religious faith, a lack of it shouldn't stop us from doing good deeds for their own sake.

After a while, footsteps sounded on the flagstones outside and there was a gentle tap at the door. Of course, one of them would come. So close were we, the seven of us, that no childhood injury went unnoticed, no slight, real or imagined, went unaddressed, no hurt was endured without comfort.

More like some small, fierce bird of prey, something with a sharp bite. An owl perhaps, that speaks only when the rest of the world sleeps. Jenny will do well enough.

But I believe we all have an inner goodness; a little flame that stays alight through the worst of trials.