“Like the rabbi with the red circle, she should have said "no" to everything. She should have become a raven. She didn't understand that every word the judge said was a trap, in that every word she said could easily be a stone used to shut her into that trap.”

“She remembered a story she had once heard: a woman had gossiped about her neighbors and later regretted what she said. She went to the rabbi and asked how she might take back her words. He instructed her to take a feather pillow to the top of the highest hill and tear it open, letting the feathers fly every which way. Then, the rabbi said, she should return to him and he would tell her what to do. She did as he said and when she returned, he told her to go outside and gather the feathers. But that's impossible, she cried. They're already scattered all over the village. He looked at her and smiled. The same is true of your words, he said.”

“What do you think of Christmas?""I like it," she said. "I think we should have it every year.”

“But what if it's a trap?' she repeated.Joe gave her a hard stare.'Of course it's a fucking trap,' he said.”

“Then he left her there, standing along, surrounded by word ghosts; things she could have said.”

“She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steel his heart against her.”