“Staying away from her has been damn near impossible. I feel drawn to her like there's a force field of energy that has been pulling me into her life.”

“She has been trying to pull her worth from him for so long. She has been trying to extract her beauty from his skin. She has been dying to be loved by him again...but he will always leave her empty”

“It has been more than twenty years since she lost her two daughters here, the one who was never given a name or a life, and her precious Usha. With thoughts of Usha comes the physical ache in her heart. There has not been a day since Usha’s birth that Kavita has not thought of her, mourned her loss, and prayed for the hollow feelings of grief to melt away. But God has not listened. Or else he has not yet forgiven her. Because the heartache has endured.”

“There's a man who's been out sailingIn a decade full of dreamsAnd he takes her to a schoonerAnd he treats her like a queenBearing beads from CaliforniaWith their amber stones and greenHe has called her from the harborHe has kissed her with his freedomHe has heard her off to starboardIn the breaking and the breathingOf the water weedsWhile she was busy being free”

“She had been a solitary child, and then solitary as a woman, drawn into an orbit of her own that took her away from others, even those who would be her friends.”

“The purpose of a short story is ... that the reader shall come away with the satisfactory feeling that a particular insight into human character has been gained, or that his (or her) knowledge of life has been deepened, or that pity, love or sympathy for a human being is awakened. ”