Mary bring out your umbrella - The sun shines down on this fine, fine day But the ashes raining down forever Are going to turn your hair to gray. Mary keep your oars a-steady Sail away on the rising flood Keep your candle at the ready Red tides can't be told from blood. - "Miss Mary" (a common child's clapping game, dating from the time of the blitz), from Pattycake and Beyond: A History of Play
Lauren OliverBut the guilt goes even deeper than that. It, too, is dust: Layers and layers of it have accumulated. Because if it werenโt for me, Lena and Alex would never have been caught at all. I told on them. I was jealous. God forgive me, for I have sinned.
Lauren OliverIf he were less well trained, and less careful, he would say hate. But he canโt say it; it is too close to passion, and passion is too close to love, and love is amor deliria nervosa, the deadliest of all deadly things: It is the reason for the games of pretend, for the secret selves, for the spasms in the throat.
Lauren OliverI'm overwhelmed with sadness for everything that was lost, and filled with anger toward the people who took it away. My people-or at least, my old people. I don't know who I am anymore, or where I belong. That's not totally true...I know I belong with Alex.
Lauren Oliver