“It looked like a ghost had dressed up the forest in tulle.”

“I had the strange desire for a giant butterfly net to catch whatever was out there, as if it could be captured so easily.”

“I felt much better shut up inside my self-made pity cocoon instead of faking happiness in front of the world.”

“What do I want? I want lots of things, just like everybody else. Problem is, we can’t really have what we want, can we?”

“Nothing could be purged without a body—no crying, no exertion, no pills to take away the pain or calm me down. Nothing. Instead, something ballooned inside me until I felt like I might explode. All I could do was sit there and drown in it, wondering why Claire affected me so much, wondering if she always would.”

“It was terrifying to realize life goes on without you.”

“Looking at oneself in a mirror is a self-canceling phenomenon. Eyes looking into eyes make a hole which spreads out and renders one invisible. I had seen more of myself in that single glimpse of a ghostly image in the pier mirror, not knowing it was I.”