It's not a date. I bought my own drink and I didn't shave my legs.

I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.

Then he left her there, standing alone, surrounded by word ghosts; things she could have said.

I prefer to scare myself in the ordinary ways, Daddy. Like letting my children cross the country for college. Why bungee jump when you can put a kindergartener on a school bus? Now, that's real terror.

You will always miss her. There will be days - even years from now - when the missing will be so sharp it will take your breath away. But there will be good days, too, months and years of them. In one way or another you'll be searching for her all your life.

You couldn't give up you for them. But what if you wanted them more than you wanted a singular powerful you?

That was the one thing she knew now. Some chances came and went, and if you missed them, you could spend the rest of your life standing alone, waiting for an opportunity that had already passed you by.