“Words could be like food - they felt like something in your mouth. They tasted like something.”

“I could smell something. Fear.I could taste it now.It tasted like blood in my mouth, and I could feel it slide through me and open me up when I saw him ...”

“Kidding?” He asked; rolling the foreign word over in his mouth like he tasted something sour. “Yeah, you know. Joking. Ha ha ha.” I said.”

“And when we finally stood up and turned to face the world, I could feel something climbing through me. I could feel it on its hands and knees inside me, rising up, rising up - and I smiled.I smiled, thinking, The hunger, because I knew it all too well.The hunger.The desire.Then, slowly, as we walked on, I felt the beauty of it, and I could taste it, like words inside my mouth.”

“Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.”

“I felt like I had lost something. But not something silly, like my keys or my gum; more like my arm or my foot, something that really mattered. Like something that I could live without, but would make life much harder if it were missing. And life is hard enough. Life is hard enough with everything we're given.”