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

Each night, Liesel would step outside, wipe the door, and watch the sky. Usually it was like spillage - cold and heavy, slippery and gray - but once in a while some stars had the nerve to rise and float, if only for a few minutes. On those nights, she would stay a little longer and wait. Hello, stars.

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

...they watched the humans disappear. They watched them dissolve, like moving tablets in the humid air.

And they would all smile at the beauty of destruction.

If a guy like you can stand up and do what you did, then maybe everyone can. Maybe everyone can live beyond what they're capable of.

Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.