“Yes, well, how was I to know you would be so dramatic? Really, Francine, I don’t know where you get it from.” Then she primly grabbed the fowling gun before departing from the room.”

“Really, how much of one’s life is made up of these private incidents; how submerged one is. You know, for example, that you will recover from a broken heart, but somehow that piece of information, that factoid, never arrives at the soul or the brain or the nervous system, yes, the nervous system, where it might do some good. But if you know you’re going to be all right, why then do you suffer so? To get there. To get where you know you are going to get to anyway. How pathetic, then, to feel about having arrived. I survived, you say. Yes, but what else would you do? No one dies from love. Come, come.”

“How frail you are. I don’t want to hurt you by accident. (Nykyrian)I’m not as frail as I appear. I know from lots of experience that I bounce really well. (Kiara)I would kill anyone who hurt you. (Nykyrian)”

“Most people don’t know where money comes from. Even most of our elected officials don’t know. If you were to ask a politician where money comes from, s/he would probably reply, “I don’t know, from other people’s pockets?”

“What, are you doing? Aside from getting your sandwich cold.""I’m making a snow angel. Don’t you know what that is?""Yes, I know. But why? You must be freezing.""Not so much, actually. My face is a little, I guess.”

“I told you,” Harry was saying to Ben. “I warned you. As soon as I saw her from distance, do you remember what I said to you?”“Yes, yes. You said she was trouble. You where wrong there, and you’re wrong now.”“Benjamin, I know about these things. She is trouble.”“You know nothing except the idiocy you glean from your insipid books that tell you nothing about life. You don’t know how to live.”“And you do?”“Yes, I do. She is no trouble. She is Life!”Harry rolled his eyes to the heavens. “More fool you. How else do you define trouble?”“Like a femme fatale,” Ben said.“Give her time, Benjamin. She is a fille fatale. Quattordici indeed!”Ben moved away from mocking Harry, his shoulders dropping.”