“Lacy took the box she’d brought up from the basement and placed each item inside. Here was thecrime scene: look at what was left behind and try to re-create the boy.”

“I took his wildness from him and tried to fold it into myself, filling up the empty spaces all those second place finishes left behind.”

“Worry was a box to live inside of, worry a mechanism for evading the present, for the re-creating the past, for dealing with the future.”

“His words stayed with her for years. Each night as she lay waiting for sleep, she tried to re-create the evening in her mind — the tone of his voice, his hand on her shoulder. Soon the memory was worn as an old photograph, the edges fuzzy from frequent handling; she worried that she’d gotten the words wrong, forgotten some nuance of his face or voice. Finally she wondered if she’d made the whole thing up.”

“How is it right to slip free of an old skin and walk away from the scene of the crime? We came, we saw, we took away and we left behind, we must be allowed our anguish and our regrets.”

“When boys and girls go out to play there is always someone left behind, and the boy who is left behind is no use to the girl who is left behind.”