“And in general, the residents of the town wondered why they all felt hollow just beneath the throat, the result of missing something they had never been able to name in the first place.”

“Betrayal was a stone beneath a mattress of thr bed you shared, something you felt digging into you no matter how you shifted position. What was the point of being able to forgive, when deep down, you both had to admit you'd never forget?”

“[...] Wondering why white people named girl babies things like Hope and Faith and Patience - names they could never live up to - and black mothers called their daughters Mercy, Deliverance, Salvation - crosses they'd always have to bear.”

“I wonder if the conversations you've never had with someone count, if you've been over them a thousand times in your mind.”

“I look for places like me: big, hollow, forgotten by most everyone.”

“Eli had learned long ago that you can stare right at something and not see what lies beneath the surface.”

“Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.”