“Like most of the connections that explain the pain in our hearts, he couldn't bring it to mind. He couldn't see the truth because it was too big and it was right in front of him.”

“That night, my heart softened around Wills's autism. Clearly, Katherine had been right. I couldn't isolate him. As painful as it was to watch him paralyzed with fright, I knew that he was happier when he tried. Not showing up was admitting defeat. Admitting that he couldn't do it. Admitting that the autism was bigger than him.”

“Jim he couldn't see no sense in the most of it, but he allowed we was white folks and knowed better than him;”

“He shrugged, looking right into my eyes. "Right now, this is all I feel." He held our intertwined hands up for me to see and I wanted to look away, but I couldn't break the hold his gaze had on me, like he could see more than anyone else saw. Things I couldn't see myself.”

“The betrayal meant he couldn't trust her anymore, and his heart told him he couldn't forgive her.”

“Death was painful, not because people couldn't see their loved ones anymore, but because they couldn't communicate with them anymore.”