We look at each other for a moment and for once I feel awkward. It's not that I'm not into humility; I've just never had to practise it.

Then he holds her and for a moment I hear total silence; that totally silent part of a cry that announces that the most horrible grief is going to follow. And it does, and he's muffling it, but I can hear and I want someone to come over and jab her with a sedative because its pitch pierces my soul.

You don't die. You just... get really angry and then after you're angry you hurt a lot and then the best thing is that one day you remember something she said or did and you laugh instead of crying.

Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?

Do you love me?’ he asked instead. ‘Because if you don’t, I’d wait until you did. I’d wait weeks and months and years.

Because without our language, we have lost ourselves. Who are we without our words?

One of Sir Topher's rules was to never indulge in sentimentality, never return for what was left behind.