“And I agreed, but still, she owed us an explanation. If she was up there, down there, out there, somewhere, maybe she would laugh.”

“I loved to take her hair down and she sat on the bed and kept very still, except suddenly she would dip down to kiss me while I was doing it, and I would take out the pins and lay them on the sheet and it would be loose and I would watch her while she kept very still and then take out the last two pins and it would all come down and she would drop her head and we would both be inside of it, and it was the feeling of inside a tent or behind a falls.”

“Hey, guys!" Grover yelled somewhere above us. "I think she's unconscious!""Roooaaarrr!""Maybe not," Grover corrected.”

“Good night, Owe,” she whispered.“Good night, Red. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”“You would have to mention bugs,” she muttered.Owen laughed.”

“She fell, she hurt, she felt. She lived. And for all the tumble of her experiences, she still had hope. Maybe this next time would do the trick. Or maybe not. But unless you stepped into the game, you would never know.”

“You're lucky your mother died,' she said.I didn't like that. 'I'm lucky my mother died?'Between sobs she said, 'Your mother would have stayed if she could. My mother chose to leave me. She's still out there somewhere. I wish she had died instead.'I sat down next to her and put my arm around her. 'I'll never leave you.'She laid her head on my shoulder. 'I know.”