“I vowed after that day that I would be your hero too, no matter how long it took”

“Be honest: Are you surprised that I didn't realize sooner? Are you surprised that it took me so long to even /think/ the word -- death? Dying? Dead?Do you think I was being stupid? Naive?Try not to judge. Remember that we're the same, you and me.I thought I would live forever too.”

“I’m not the Hana everyone told me I would be after my cure.”

“It won't matter if nobody ever thinks I'm pretty (although sometimes I wish, just for a second, that somebody would)”

“But this is my voice. How would you be able to tell when I was talking?”

“At the same time I know that it’s not really their fault, at least not completely. I did my part too. I did it on a hundred different days and in a thousand different ways, and I know it. But this makes the anger worse, not better.”

“But hope got in, no matter how hard and fast I tried to stomp it out. Like these tiny fire ants we used to get in Portland. No matter how fast you liked them, there were always more, a steady stream of them, resistant, ever-multiplying.Maybe, the hope said. Maybe.”