She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.
I think that’s what you say when you can’t have something you want, isn’t it? You say you don’t want it in the first place.
I think the rest of the world is not as cold and lonely a place as you think. At least I have to hope.
I wonder that if you keep growing and changing like you’re supposed to, if you always end up embarrassed about how stupid you used to be. Every year I realize how dumb I was the year before.
And age was just a trait, like the color of your hair, or the amount of freckles on your skin.
Books are the way to stretch out people’s souls, and I won’t have children with small souls.
Leeda knew friends never turned out to be what you expected. They came and went in waves, pulling away and coming back, leaving you feeling safe one minute and lost the next.
I could never leave,’ Pine Sap said. ‘Why?’ she asked.Pine Sap shrugged, and gestured in the direction of the village. ‘Because I think people must be the same everywhere. Only these people are my bones.
Because I think people must be the same everywhere. Only these people are in my bones.
So many stars are popping out above us it seems you could almost dip your fingers up there and come out with a handful of stars.
We don’t know where Millie went, and we don’t know if we’ll see her again, but there’s no reason not to hope. We don’t know the answers, and maybe that’s a nice thing.
But Tik Tok believes everything’s circular, including men and women. He says nature seems to go around and around, and that we all have bits of everything.
We are here to take chances, and fail, and keep trying.
And though, truly, she sometimes felt like something inside her had disappeared, it seemed that must be a natural part of growing up. Standing out too much made one feel too alone to do it forever.
I’m not myself,” she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.He smiled. “You can never say that. You’re just a piece of yourself right now that you don’t like.
What mattered was stil there. That was what they all felt, and what surprised them all. What mattered couldnt be shaken.
. . . And as fall turned to winter, the Darlington peach trees started dropping their leaves again, gently, like they were letting them go. It wasnt the same as giving them up. It wasnt the same as losing them.
One by one they dissapeared Pumpkin last of all. The last May saw of himwas his sad face under his waving tuft of hair and then his long fingers,reaching out toward her for a hug that would never happen now as they turned around the bend.
Everyone will think I’m ugly.”Tik Tok smiled. “That’s true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. There’s no telling who else in the world would think you’re beautiful.
So many lights you’d think we were living in a constellation
It was almost as if he was giving her his silence, so that all of her anger had a place to go.
Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn’t happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn’t seem broken at all.
P.S. Please give my love to Tink, she always was such a funny little bug
You love me,” she said. “That’s enough. We love each other.””Yes. Yes, that’s true.” He smiled. “We are a love story.
Earth,” Alexa finally said. “It’s not that great anyway.” And they all smiled sadly. Because, of course, it was everything.
That is what all creatures great and small are made of. Leftover stardust. An atom exploded, and all the dust became the planets, the stars…and us. That’s all anything amounts to.
And to Tiger Lily he suddenly, inexplicably, seemed older than her, and wiser, and the thought hit her hard that it wasn’t fair, because she’d suffered, and there he was, looking like he knew so much more than she ever would.
I’ll teach you,” Tiger Lily offered with a shrug of her shoulders.”Did your mother teach you?” he asked.”I don’t have a mother,” she said. “Like you.”For some reason, Peter was glad to hear it.
People say I’m not much of a girl either,” Tiger Lily said.She thought of Tik Tok, who was fond of saying that people were all bits of each thing, boy and girl.
And always, I could see that, despite his weakness for her or because of it, he seemed uncatchable, as if he might slip away at any moment.
It was like this sometimes, and I felt I should look away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be there, having my face touched, defeating a heart like Peter’s, but the next best thing was seeing it for Tiger Lily.
To not do what you can to protect someone, that’s cowardly.