“She kept public radio on so it sounded like someone was sitting next to her, engaging her in intriguing conversation.”

“This was the place where someone had led her, only she could not remember who and could not remember when. Just that this was where she was now.”

“Parker fixated on the envelope's precise penmanship as she lifted it. Her grandmother rarely took the time to write her own name in the return address, let alone give it the aesthetic attention that this one so seemed to demand. Once, when Parker questioned her on this, her grandmother casually asserted that she "didn't quite believe in envelopes" as if this were a debatable concept like Socialism or wearing white after Labor Day.”

“The smell of burning firewood and the molding of organic, earthy substances reminded her of jumping wildly into the enormous leaf piles of autumns past and she suddenly wished that it was appropriate for someone her age to do such a thing.”

“The likeness she had been searching for was on her face the whole time.”

“She smiled, not because she felt confident that she could think of a solution, but for the gratitude that she wasn’t quite so alone in her pursuit.”

“Love was something that sat comfortably in her dreams, so she never fully expected it to materialize.”