“Why was it that they could never shout like that about something that mattered?”

“And yet, just for a moment, what almost frightening power had sounded in that cry from only a few hundred throats! Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?”

“That was the thing about the Goodnight world. No matter what the label said, you could never assume anything only worked like magic.”

“For the young people could not talk. And why should they? Shout, embrace, swing, be up at dawn...”

“Why is it always the world? Why is it never just half a block? Or Jersey? You know, something we could live without?”

“One thing I’d learned in life was that women could bitch about their men until they were blue in the face and you could listen and nod and offer support. But you never as in never said something bad about a woman’s man no matter how much she bitched or how much he may deserve it. It always came back to haunt you.”