I love to swim, and I love being near water.

Norah watched him, serious and utterly absorbed in his task, overcome by the simple fact of his existence.

No one could suspect the intricate mysteries of her heart.

He wished he had some kind of X-ray vision for the human heart.

A fear Paul had transformed all these years, like a gifted alchemist, into anger and rebellion.

He fished in his pocket for his keys and instead pulled out the last geode, gray and smooth, earth-shaped. He held it, warming in his palm, thinking of all mysteries the world contained: layers of stone, concealed beneath the flesh of earth and grass; these dull rocks, with their glimmering hidden hearts.

She had died at age twelve, and by now she was nothing but the memory of love-- nothing, now, but bones.