Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.

Very suddenly. Yes, quite suddenly, I didn't feel like I could handle my feeling of aloneness.

The question is what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying?

The dilemma, of course, is that such people save their most important words for after, when the surrounding humans are unlucky enough to find them.

How'd it feel?" Rube asked himself. "I don't know exactly, but it made me want to howl.

an expression of surprise falls from her face, though she's trying to keep it. it breaks off and she seems to catch it and fidget with it in her hands.

An attribute of Rosa Hubermann, she was a good woman for a crisis.