She's been conned, ruined, left for dead, and she's not going to forgive any of it. She will soldier on, if only out of spite.

For males twenty-five is the fatal age. For women it's twenty. We are all dropping like flies.

There is a dark place calling to me, but I will not go just yet. I know I can't return from it.

I like the idea of something greater than us. We destroy things with our curiosity. We shatter with our best intentions. We are no closer to perfection than we were one hundred years ago, or five hundred.

I shake my head, watching snow tumble and swirl from an all-white sky. The world seems so clean if you only look up

But I know all the things you're too sweet to know.

Cure" is one of the most precious words in the English language. It's a short word. A clean and simple word. But it isn't so easy a thing as it sounds. There are questions like: How will this affect us in ten years? In twenty? What will it do to our children? Our children's children?