“Miss Maudie’s hand closed tightly on mine, and I said nothing. Its warmth was enough.”

“The Colonel's hand was so little, and I grabbed it tight, his cold seeping into me and my warmth into him. 'I memorized the populations,' he said.”

“I dream about reaching across the backseat and touching his hand. Just one hand. It closes slowly, tightly around mine, and the sensation of his skin against mine is astounding. I've never felt anything like it before.”

“More real, more there, like it's just the most incredible thing in the world that we're both still alive and I feel my chest get all funny and tight and I think, Here she is, right here, my Viola, she came for me, she's here-And I find myself thinking how I want to take her hand again and never let it go, to feel the skin of it, the warmth of it, hold it tight against my own hand...”

“Except for Thurlow,there was not a person she would have missed and many a one to whom she would gleefully have said farewell forever.But that had changed now,utterly changed. She longed for Dragon, the sound of his voice, the touch of his hand,the warmth of his smile. For a moment she closed her eyes and saw him behind them.”

“Inside plum trees stood in a row, flowers lifted their pale throats to the moon and stars, a magnolia held its tight-closed buds like white candles in its green hands.”