“Tara moved into the kitchen and went still at the condition of it. "Formica countertops," she said as if she'd discovered asbestos.”

“Tara. I'm a vampire," Pearl said."Yeah, whatever, and I'm queen of the sea.""Your Marine Majesty, I'm a vampire," Pearl said.Concentrating, she slid her fangs out. "Tara. Tara!" She curled back her lips to expose the points. "See"Tara screamed."I won't hurt you," Pearl said. Calm down. Sheesh."Tara continued to scream.Pearl considered biting her merely to shut her up. Regrettably that would be counter productive. Studying her nails, she waited for Tara to quit screaming. She noticed that Tara didn't try to exit the car, which was an interesting choice."You aren't running away," Pearl said."Duh, it's raining outside," Tara said.”

“Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia?”

“[The kitchen] was also messy--delightfully so, thought Jane--and it didn't look as though lots of cooking went on there. There was a laptop computer on the counter with duck stickers on it, the spice cabinet was full of Ben's toy trucks, and Jane couldn't spot a cookbook anywhere. This is the kitchen of a Thinker, she decided, and promised herself that she'd never bother with cooking, either.”

“But she'd lost a good deal of her innocence there, because she'd discovered so much she couldn't control.”

“It was the first time she'd discovered something she really didn't want to find, and she didn't know what to do once she'd found it.”