Feelings aren't forever. Time waits for no one, but progress waits for man to enact it.

I feel a flash of grief so intense it almost makes me cry out: not for what I lost, but for the chances I missed.

There is so much fragility in kissing, in other people: It is all glass.

Step on a crack , you'll break your mama's back. Step on a stone, you'll end up all alone. Step on a stick, you're bound to get the Sick. Watch where you tread, you'll bring out all the dead. - A common children's playground chant, usually accompanied by jumping rope or clapping.

The first time I saw you, at the Governor, I handn't been to watch the birds at the border in years. But that's what you reminded me of. You were jumping up, and you were yelling something, and your hair was coming loose from your ponytail, and you were so fast..." He shakes his head. "Just a flash, and then you were gone, Exactly like a bird.

A good friend keeps your secrets for you. A best friend helps you keep your own secrets.

That is what Alex is now: a shadow-boy