But then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don't want that. And that's the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me--and you-to lift that burden from themselves.

So many of my books, I don't want to say they have messages, but they have important things to say.

Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting.

I was a sidelines child: never class president, never team captain, never the one with the most valentines in my box.

Evil can do anything, for a price.

Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?

Then I went home to continue my life, which had changed a little, as lives do every day, inching by microspecks forward toward whatever surprises are coming next.