Girls are small and polite and smiley. They wear dresses and their hair is long and it’s pulled into shapes behind their heads or on either side.

And it hurts her, but it's an okay hurt, but it hurts still, but it's good, but it hurts.

As destruction goes, the monster said behind him, this is all remarkably pitiful.

Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.

"No," he says, taking us both in. "No, no, no. You've come farther than most people on this planet will in their lifetimes. You've overcome obstacles and dangers and things that should've killed you. You've outrun an army and a madman and deadly illness and seen things most people will never see. How do you think you could have possibly come this far if you didn't have hope?"

Limitations can be hugely creative and hugely inspiring - so long as they are the ones you choose for yourself.

So we forgive each other?" The crooked smile climbs up one more time. "Again?" And I look right into his eyes, right into him as far as I can see, because I want him to hear me, I want him to hear me with everything I mean and feel and say. "Always," I say to him. "Every time.