“And now, because of everything you were involved in, I will spend the rest of my life hiding in the outback, mourning the death of a man who was dead when I meant him!”

“Bram was staring at me in dibelief, as if I were trying to persuade him that his entire existencce as a dead man was simply an incredibly realistic dream.”

“You're...very resilient, for someone who's dead." Her voice was a little steadier."And I think you're far stronger than any of us were prepared to give you credit for." I kept shooting my mouth off like an idiot, telling her things I'd been ordered not to, and she kept going with it. I was impressed, honestly.”

“I know for a fact that many are in hiding. Until this moment my wife was in hiding, and my son still is."He stroked his wife's yellowed hand. "And I would kill an entire living army for one more moment with her.”

“I decided that my initial survival strategy would involve declaring my complete ignorance of what was going on. This would not,naturally, be terribly hard to do.”

“We were all quiet for a few moments before I broke the silence by saying, in my best upper-crust-girls'-school voice, "I am sure that all of you are really just suffering from some horrible disease, and that I should feel nothing but pity for you. If you let me go, I will organize a charity function that you will not believe. It will be, as our ancestors used to say, 'epic.'"There was some furious whispering before Bram responded with, "Ah, thank you, Miss, but we're already dead."I bit my lip. I was starting to crumble.”

“Ready to meet my best friend, then?"I clipped my vest together in front and smiled tightly. "Should I bring a bottle of wine? Any taboo topics? Politics, life after death?""Yeah, just stay away from that one entirely.”