“I could have grabbed his shirt collar. I could have pulled him close to me, so close he could feel my breath on his skin, and I could have said to him, "This is just a crisis. A flash! A single match struck against the implacable darkness of time! You are the one who taught me to never give up. You taught me that new possibilities emerge for those who are prepared, for those who are ready. You have to believe!”

“This is just a crisis. A flash! A single match struck against the implacable darkness of time! You are the one who taught me never to give up. You taught me that new possibilities emerge for those who are prepared, for those who are ready. You have to believe!”

“No. I'm not buying a shirt."I could buy you a shirt."I don't need you to buy me a shirt."Mercedes pulled him over to the nice GQ-dude who worked the department. "Tell him he needs a new shirt."I don't need a new shirt."Sir, you need a new shirt.”

“I put both hands on his chest and backed him up a pace. The black sky behind him was filled with color. I said, “Go. Hurry. You can still help. You’re missing it.”He pulled me close again and gazed down at me, tracing one finger so tenderly along my cheekbone. His finger was black, and he might be leaving an attractive blackstreak across my skin. I didn’t mind. The way he was looking at me with those light blue eyes, I had never felt more beautiful.He bent his head close to my ear again so I could hear him whisper, “I’m not missing anything”

“I lost someone very close to me and afterward I believed I could have saved him had I been a better friend to him. But everyone disappears, no matter who loves them.”

“I envy you then. I have no idea what it would be like to have people like that in my life. People who needed me."She watched him go. She could need him. Could fill up that part of him.”