We can save the world," I say, trying to smile. "You and me.

I promised to keep on going but maybe keep on going means coming back first.

...the lesson of forever and ever is that knowing a man's mind ain't knowing the man.

Flakes of white fall thru the trees and onto the road, catching on our clothes and hair. It's a silent fall and it's weird how it makes everything else seem quiet, too, like it's trying to tell you a secret, a terrible, terrible secret.

Ah, well, then you've never stood on a beach as the waves came crashing in, the water stretching out from you until it's beyond sight, moving and blue and alive and so much bigger than even the black beyond seems because the ocean hides what it contains.

Viola blows out a thoughtful air. "My dad used to say, 'There's only forward, Vi, only outward and up.'" "There's only forward," I repeat. "Outward and up," she says.

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