I tired the back door -- unlocked. Truley the Man Upstairs was smiling down on me.

She couldn't make it untrue.

This time, it was more of a thought than a feeling, a soft heat that began at her mouth and unfurled through the rest of her.

Boys,' she says, 'just aren't very good at being afraid.

It's rude to stare, but the great thing about staring at a sedated person is that they don't know you're doing it.

I don't know if I'd want to be comforted, if I'm being honest. If I'm being forced to eat soot, I want to know that somewhere else in the world, someone else has to eat soot as well. I want to know that soot tastes terrible. I don't want to be told that soot's good for the digestion. And of course, by soot, I mean beans.

Could others hold him?" His face remains the same. "There are no others. You're the only one." I swallow. "I can hold him.