“I needed sleep. Big squishy bunches of it. Soon.”

“Or, if you don't like the buildings, you can head to FOrest Park. That place is so big, they'd never find you in there. Just think of it: you could start up some big foot sightings.”

“The three women laughing over there? Dark wavy hair, coffee skin, and beautiful matching sets of big, lovely—” I slapped him on the arm. “Hey. Eyes. I was going to say eyes. What were you thinking?”

“My feet hurt, my back hurt, and I really needed to pee. Yeah, I was feeling really powerful.”

“If you are to survive, you need to put your stubbornness aside and listen to me.” “Oh, I just love that idea.”

“... he trotted down the hallway on all fours and started in on his second favorite pastime, conversations with plumbing. Just what I needed: Stone, the Toilet Whisperer.”

“You’re a good kid. If you’d work on your pain-in-the-ass tendencies, you’d be real nice.” “Too bad that isn’t going to happen anytime soon,” he muttered. “Real nice doesn’t get you very far.” “Real nice can keep you from getting beat up,” I said. He smiled. “Right. Maybe we should both work on it, then.”