“but it was also something in Sandy herself, an unwillingness to allow anything more to upset the realm of her understanding.”

“This is not real suffering, she tells herself. this is only a matter of reprogramming her picture of the future. Of understanding that the line of descendancy is not continuous but arbitrary.”

“Maybe the idea was that he could write so many letters, deliver so many envelopes back to Sandy, eventually he'd have sent all of himself, and could exist more there than he did here.”

“His thoughts skirted Sandy and especially Grace as if they were fatal chasms into which he might tumble.”

“He thought he might say more, but something in her face had closed off, and the opportunity passed.”

“How much easier it would have been if he and Sandy could have fought: a skirmish in the night, some harsh words, some measure of the truth actually spoken aloud.”

“Her smile was genuine-looking and later he would mull her question over and over in his head until it mushroomed into something larger.”