“It's hard to know another person. It's like everyone fades and glows in ever - changing light. Like we're each a playing card in a deck, random only to a certain point. Yet still random enough to keep us guessing which card will be played next.”

“My memories are like a shuffled deck of cards, each one coming up at random.”

“In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions—we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.”

“Well, kid," Aahz said, sweeping me with an appraising stare, "it looks like we're stuck with each other. The setup isn't ideal, but it's what we've got. Time to bite the bullet and play with the cards we're dealt. You do know what cards are, don't you?""Of course," I said, slightly wounded."Good.""What's a bullet?”

“One wild card was yet to be played.”

“We're like snowflakes. Each of us is unique, but it's still pretty hard to tell us apart.”