“I feel an unfamiliar but pleasant sensation in my lips, tugging them upward. This is... new.”

“I'm watching her talk. Watching her jaw move and collecting her words one by one as they spill from her lips. I don't deserve them. Her warm memories. I'd like to paint them over the bare plaster walls of my soul, but everything I paint seems to peel.”

“Eating is not a pleasant business. I chew off a man's arm, and I hate it. Of course if I don't eat all of him, if I spare his brain, he'll rise up and follow me back to the airport, and that might make me feel better. I'll introduce him to everyone, and maybe we'll stand around and groan for a while.”

“As she dampens my shirt with sadness and snot, I realize I'm about to do another thing I've never done before. I suck in air and attempt to sing. “You're . . . sensational . . . ,” I croak, struggling for a trace of Frank's melody. “Sensational . . . that's all.”There's a pause, and then something shifts in Julie's demeanor. I realize she's laughing.“Oh wow,” she giggles, and looks up at me, her eyes still glistening above a grin. “That was beautiful, R, really. You and Zombie Sinatra should record Duets III.”I cough. “Didn't get . . . warm-up.”

“I want a new past,new memories, a new first handshake with love. I want to start over in every possible way.”

“I feel the flatline of my existence disrupting, forming heartbeat hills and valleys”

“In my palm I can feel the echo of her pulse, standing in for the absense of mine.”