“Cullen?""Hey, Mom.""Can you do me a favor?" she asked in that way that implied that saying no would cause someone to die.”

“Hey, as you leave, Qhuinn wanted to say, will you do me a favor? I think my left ventricle is on the floor, so don't step on it as you pull out? Thanks. Great.”

“My goal in life is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared”

“When I was little and my mom got mad at me she would always say, "You know you can be replaced".I have often wondered if I was.”

“Very well,” she said after a moment. “Here is how I see that loyalty and love are the same: You would lay down your life for someone for reasons of both love and loyalty. But loyalty implies dependence, doesn’t it? For instance, dogs are loyal. It also implies indebtedness. For instance, servants are loyal.”“It also implies integrity. And honor. And—”“Steadfastness,” she completed, with only a hint of irony.“So you see them as absolutes then, Miss Redmond? Love means to be willing to die for someone, and loyalty perhaps the same?”“How can they be otherwise?”

“What can we do?" Mom asked again.I shrugged.But she kept asking, as if there were something she could do, until I just kind of crawled across the couch into her lap and my dad came over and held my legs really tight and I wrapped my arms all the way around my mom's middle and they held on to me for hours while the tide rolled in.”