“The sun beats down, and I feel my shoulders burning. I could stay in this boat all day. Time is suspended in a boat. I take a deep breathand try to remember this moment, the heat on my face, the grit under my feet, the strength of the waves. I run my hands through the pebblesand sand, searching for sea glass. One thing leads to another. There are tide pools between the larger rocks, tiny rivers connecting themto the sea”

“I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.”

“I gazed up at the sky. I was in a tiny boat, on a vast ocean. No wind, no waves, just me floating there. Adrift on the open sea....A tiny boat cut loose from the fiction of the ship.”

“One hand on the iron and the other on the nape of my neck, he rocked against me over and over, and my legs quivered with his firm, determined movements. His tongue searched my mouth, and I could feel the vibration of his deep groans against my chest as he kept to his promise to make our last day together memorable. I could spend a thousand years trying to block that moment from my memory, and it would still be burned into my mind.”

“I dropped my head into my arms. I could hear the sea vibrating, the tiny hiss of displaced sand and the click of stones. If I lay still and quiet enough, I thought, I could melt into this elemental world of sun, water and wide, open horizon.”

“I make my hand my whole world. Hand hand hand hand. I push through the sand and light and heat, and with every bit of strength I have in me, I squeeze back.”