“Perhaps this is a dream, said Madam La Vaughn from her chair. Perhaps the whole thing has been nothing but a dream.”

“But perhaps you do not understand. I was crippled, crippled by an elephant that came through the roof - Madam LaVaughn”

“Perhaps," said the man, "you would like to be lost with us. I have found it much more agreeable to be lost in the company of others.”

“Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?” “Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. She closed her eyes. “I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.”

“That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.”

“No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.”

“But let's not speak of what might have been. Let us speak instead of what is. You are whole.”