“I have packed myself into silence so deeply and for so long that I can never unpack myself using words. When I speak, I only pack myself a little differently.”
“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”
“Sometimes I'm so deeply buried under self-reproaches that I long for a word of comfort to help me dig myself out again.”
“So how long do I have to pack?”
“I thought to myself: 'Is the pain a little less than when I went away?' and tried to persuade myself that it was so.”
“I had to protect him. And me. So I took everything I felt for the pack. I saw the bond, and instead of closing myself off to it, I pulled. I pulled at it and I thrust it toward Chase.”