There was no other sound in the world like a car crash.

Hello, lovely. You're as pretty as pretty today.

Every third step I ran, my breath exploded out of me all in a rush. One step to suck in another cold lungful. One step to let it excape. One step of not breathing.

In his head, his mother said, 'People shout when they don’t have the vocabulary to whisper'.

No, you have to talk first. You wanted to talk. It means you say something and I respond and you talk back again. It's one of the human race's most shining achievements. It's called a conversation.

Mom, you're the one who said to never stop in case I get raped or picked up by a democrat.

...sensation of rightness, of saying the right thing atthe right time to the right person, that too-raresensation of having the right thing to say and believing it.