“And then, believe it or not, it came to me for the first time that all the difference was caused by me.”

“Like that time I came home and Mum was sick, not letting me upstairs. Later on I heard Dad actually blaming her for being sick. That must have been the first time I felt queer.”

“I made up my mind to tell Joe about what was going on at home after the funny business about Molly's letter. As I went to sleep I imagined myself telling Joe even about the the funny marble feeling that came over me from time to time. Then I remembered a lot of the whopping lies I had told Joe about my mother and father.”

“It's all because of me isn't it? It's all my fault?”

“I stared so long that I got to seeing them as being dark, ugly sins in my body, smelling and dirty, but my touch face showed that I didn't give a damn. I was the toughest person in the whole world. And then inside the outline of my body a devil's face slowly took shape. It came to my chest, a dark, ugly thing with big lips that looked hot around yellow pointed teeth, eyeing me in a friednly way, as though it had been feeding on what was inside me and was trying to show how pleased it was.”

“I looked back towards them, to see if they were watching me, and saw her pulling her arm from his grip. Her eyes were closed and her hair was all over the places and her face was screwed up.”

“the air just went cold, as it did those times before, and started sticking to my skin, on my arms and legs and face, everywhere. I had seen a marble statue in a museum, a well built man doubled over throwing something, and the feeling reminded me of him. It was as if I was starting to be made of marble.”