The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!

We did it!" I said, feeling limp with relief. "It actually worked!" Dr. Turgenev rubbed his forehead. "I had very big doubts." "Big doubts?" I said weakly. The Russian scientist shrugged. "I am pessimist," he said.

I turned around and headed back to the stairwell, planning to go downstairs and buy a chocolate bar from the vending machine. Maybe it would fall on me and end my misery.

You're like something drawn with the sun's fire, and I can take only little glimpses of you.

Honestly," she sighed, "I don't know what kind of life we'll have together, with me always flying off in one direction and you in the other." I smiled. "It's a good thing the world's round," I said.

You've no fear of heights," puffed the girl. "None," I said. "I've heard that about you.

It's the way you look whenever she mentions her fiance. My cat looks like that before he hacks up a hairball.