“Hal is on his way." The nurse announced reentering the room.”

“Daughters. They were sometimes as familiar and intimate as honeysuckles in bloom, but mostly daughters were mysteries. They lived in rooms you had long since abandoned and could not, did not, ever want to reenter.”

“His grandma burst into his mum's hospital room ahead of him with a terrible question on her face. But there was a nurse inside who answered immediately. "It's okay," she said. "You're in time.”

“She made him think of his mother, of his nurse, of all things kind and comforting, besides having the attraction of not being his mother or his nurse.”

“He's going to bite me!Instantly the last light in the room fades out as if announcing the reign of darkness.”

“It was to a virgin woman that the birth of the Son of God was announced. It was to a fallen woman that His Resurrection was announced.”