We moved together very slowly toward the house, trying to understand its ugliness and ruin and shame.

All cat stories start with this statement: "My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...

It has long been my belief that in times of great stress, such as a 4-day vacation, the thin veneer of family wears off almost at once, and we are revealed in our true personalities.

Don't do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don't do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.

Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?

I remember that I stood on the library steps holding my books and looking for a minute at the soft hinted green in the branches against the sky and wishing, as I always did, that I could walk home across the sky instead of through the village.

We eat the year away. We eat the spring and the summer and the fall. We wait for something to grow and then we eat it.