Wait, I got it. We, uh, won the battle and lost the war, or was it the other way around? 'Cause around here, it's hard to tell sometimes.

The toes of our ratty black sneakers touched.

When you look up. Do you see the blue sky of what might be? Or the darkness of what will never be? Do you see me?

I am a friend. I have in my possession two thousand assorted buttons, eight hundred keys, and only one friend. Perhaps it is not something you can understand. I have not often been one before. I will be now.

My mom was there, in some form, in some sense, in some universe. My mom was still my mom, even if she only lived in books and door locks and the smell of fried tomatoes and old paper. She lived.

Stupid to the power of stupid.

Darkness, real darkness, was more than just a lack of light.