“I didn't know," he said. "I didn't know you needed me."Her voice shook. "I always need you”

“Emmeline didn't call me anything. She didn't need, for I was always there. You only need names for the absent.”

“Daddy shook Pappy's hand, then Henry's, then hugged the children. At last he turned to me. Softly, in a voice meant for my ears along, he said, "When you were a year old and you came down with rubella, the doctor told us you were likely to die of it. Said he didn't expect you'd live another forty-eight hours. Your mother was frantic, but I told her that doctor didn't know what he was talking about. Our Laura's a fighter, I said, and she's going to be just fine. I never doubted it, not for one minute, then or since. You keep that in your pocket and take it out when you need it, hear?”

“What did you do to this?' he asked in a horrorstruck voice.'It didn't want to come out of the dashboard.''So you felt the need to torture it?''You know how I am with tools. No pain was inflicted intentionally.'He shook his head, his face a mask of faux tragedy. 'You killed it.”

“She was a believer, you know," the Captain said. "My wife. She thought socialism was the only thing that would make us strong again. There would be a difficult period, she always said, some sacrifices. And then things would be better. I didn't think I would miss that, you know. I didn't realize how much I needed someone to keep telling me why.”

“You said go to her, and I let pride stand in my way. You said she needed me, and I didn't believe. You said love her, and I thought it would be easy.”