“The circus had been unlike anything I could ever imagine and I could not walk away. I wanted to be a part of the magic, create it and wield it with such skill that it looked effortless. I wanted to fly.”

“For unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be. I could only be me. ”

“I had been foolish in imagining that I had seen anything in it, more than that you were extremely good looking, and that I could paint.”

“Don't imagine you could ever take my place.' I told her I had never wanted to; I only wanted to occupy the one that was empty.”

“Everybody wants to fly. At some stage in their lives, everyone looks up in the sky and sees the seemingly effortlessness of a bird in the gulf of air overhead and thinks: I wish, just one time, that could be me.”

“It's as if everything shifts around me, the pieces that didn't fit together finally twisting until they match. The terror that had been clouding and suffocating me begins to filter away, dissipating in the night. "I want something more too," I whisper. "I want more than looking back and wishing for what was or what could have been. Who I was or could have been. I want..." I lick my lips, tasting him. "I want you.”