“She knows that feeling too. Of believing that each time someone says her name, its to tell her that something bad has happened.”

“The string slices into the skin of his fingers and no matter how tough the calluses, it tears. But this beat is fast and even though his joints are aching, his arm's out of control like it has a mi...”

“I wish everyone would stop crying, Tom. Uncle Joe would be so angry about it." But she's crying herself now. "He'd be so angry at us, Tom, for crying so much when all he did was laugh.”

“Stani walks in later, glaring at them both.Bloody bastards. One minute punching each other, next minute reading poetry. Whats wrong with everyone this week?Tom can tell that”

“Worse still, he doesnt know how to follow the piper anymore because its a path Tom has lost faith in.And the piper knows it. Tom can see it in his fathers eyes now. And the more he stares, the clea...”

“What about the contacts your mum had? his dad asked.I rang and spoke to four very polite computers who gave me all these options and then cut out on me. Then I tried the post office, because they w...”

“Anna thought about the men outside on the gallery. She was glad they were there; finding them smoking and talking quietly had been comforting, it was what men did in the evenings when the work was ...”

“Her arms groped forward to guide her when her tears blocked her vision in darkness. Then she couldn't run any more. She sank to her knees and began to cry in her terror. She wanted Gary.She suddenl...”

“Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urnThrows up a steamy column and the cupsThat cheer but not inebr...”

“If there were a sympathy in choice,War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,Making it momentary as a sound,Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,Brief as the lightning in the collied nightThat,...”

“Do you think that God would separate me from my husband if I killed myself? I feel as though I am going out of my mind at times. Wouldnt God understand that I just want to be with him?”

“I went back to those graves not long afterward and found as I stood there that sadness was a very heavy thing. My body weighed twice what it had only a moment earlier, as if those graves were pulli...”