Mel thought real love was nothing less than spiritual love. He'd said he'd spent five years in a seminary before quitting to go to medical school. He said he still looked back on those years in the seminary as the most important years of his life.

That morning she pours Teacher's over my belly and licks it off. That afternoon she tries to jump out the window.

I am too nervous to eat pie.

I'm moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself.

Get in, get out. Don't linger. Go on.

What good are insights? They only make things worse.

I could hear my heart beating. I could hear everyone's heart. I could hear the human noise we sat there making, not one of us moving, not even when the room went dark.