“I said the first thing that came into my head unfortunately. "Save the drama for your mama " I told her just like an eleven-year-old.”

“I was eleven, then I was sixteen. Though no honors came my way, those were the lovely years.”

“How do you manage it, she said, at your age? I told her I'd been saving up for her all my life.”

“An eleven-year-old girl is many things, but she is not stupid.”

“Just remember, when your mother’s gnawing my ankle like a furious mama bear separated from her cum, I did it for you.”

“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?”