“All around us, birds woke up the sky.”

“Somewhere, excitement waited for me like an uncut cake.”

“I didn't tell him that I'd put his awful stories in boxes and stacked them on a shelf at the back of my mind. I could hear a quieter version of them still, from their dark place, through all the ot...”

“Anyone who's ever gone from warm and bright to cold and dark knows how I felt.”

“I slept so long and hard that when my mother woke me the next morning I was a stranger to myself.”

“And that's when I felt the first wave of sorrow that came from keeping a new secret.”

“No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”

“Do you know what pain is, Cammie? Its thebodys physical response to imminent harm.It is the minds way of telling us to move ourhand off the stove or let go of the brokenglass.”

“A sad lesson that was mine to learn is that you can't lose what was never truly yours. Nor can you hold to things that simply do not wish to be held.”

“Think of what is pure.”

“I am what I am.”

“i held it up, and tried to channel happy dog thoughts toward Cerberus- Alpo commercials, cute little puppies, fire hydrants.”