So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole.

But what he didn't understand was that this dreamland was preferable, walking through this life half-sleeping, everything at arm's length or farther away. I understood those mermaids. I didn't care if they sang to me. All I wanted was to block out all the human voices as they called me name again and again, pulling me upward into light, to drown.

I didnt pay atteniton to times or distance, instead focusing on how it felt just to be in motion, knowing it wasn't about the finish line but how I got there that mattered.

It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.

Each time, I think I'm never going to write another book. It never gets easier.

You're not the kind of person who smiles for nothing, Colie. I have to earn every one.

I trailed off and he didn't push me to finish. I was finding that I liked that.