Most of us won't see one another after graduation, and even if we do it will be different. We'll be different. We'll be adults--cured, tagged and labeled and paired and identified and placed neatly on our life path, perfectly round marbles set to roll down even, well-defined slopes.

Of all the systems of the body - neurological, cognitive, special, sensory - the cardiological system is the most sensitive and easily disturbed. The role of society must be to shelter these systems from infection and decay, or else the future of the human race is at stake. Like a summer fruit that is protected from insect invasion, bruising, and rot by the whole mechanism of modern farming; so must we protect the heart.

That's what Zombieland is: frozen, calm, quiet.

A room full of words that are nearly the truth but not quite, each note fluttering off the steam of its rose like a broken butterfly wing.

Somewhere in the endless spinning of eternity that one, tiny, fraction of a second where our lips met is lost forever.

When he speaks again, I can tell that he's smiling. "So I guess we saved each other.

That's the way I feel, at least: like there's a real me and a reflection of me, and I have no way of telling which is which.