“As a youth I got my jollies by confronting my professors with facts that ran completely contrary to what they were trying to ram into our thick skulls. His expressions of bafflement and anger had never failed to amuse me.”

“I broke away from Samedi and sprinted down the gangplank, screaming out Bram's name. His head turned, and he started limping toward me."Nora!" I heard someone yell.Bram met me halfway. He scooped me up with one arm and pulled my head toward his. I didn't fight it in the least. He kissed me harshly, and I returned it, leaping up on my toes, seeking out his chapped, broken lips with my own, inexpertly, needfully. And then he just held me as I cried, soaking his dirty T-shirt with my tears, his cheek on my head. "I thought you were gone," I managed to get out. "I thought you were really gone...""I thought I was, too," he said, laughing weakly. "But I'd never leave you if I had the choice. I was going to get back to you, or grind to dust trying.”

“Griswold!" a voice bellowed."We'll talk about this later," he said, then climbed to his feet and stood at attention. "Sir!"I turned around, only to be confronted with the largest man I had ever seen in my life.The end was nigh.”

“I got a demerit, professor." There was a kind of naughty amusement in her eyes that I found myself really liking.I smiled slowly. "Why did you do, Miss Dearly?""She henpecked Elpinoy in a most spectacular fashion," Renfield offered. "I think at one point she was actually hanging on his back." Nora made a sound of annoyance. "Alas, I was looking at a computer screen with Dr. Samedi at the time, and thus I'm afraid that neither of us can vouch for this with certainty."The laughter bubbled out of me before I could hold it back. "Were you?" I asked her."Define 'hanging.'""Bra,." Elpinoy appeared in one of the lab doorways. He gestured to the exterior doors. "Take her out. Now. Never in my life have I encountered such a little-""Lady?" I asked, trying to keep a straight face."Out.""'Phone call,'" Nora said, affecting his tone of voice and looking right at him. "'Let-ter.'""Not until Wolfe orders it!" Elpinoy marched into his lab again and slammed the door behind him.Nora stood up, her skirt bouncing a bit atop its puffy petticoat. "That man is an infuriating ponce.""And you're an excellent judge of character.”

“I was jealous of [Nora] at first, because she had prettier dresses and the naturally curly hair that had been my ultimate worldly desire at that age. In fact, when our mothers initially introduced us, i had chosen to greet her by yanking on a fistful of her hair to see if it was real. Her response was to deck me in the nose.It had been love at first fight.”

“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.”

“I mean, I don't even like guys with light hair, for one thing! Never mind the fact that he'd knock me into a coma every time he opened his mouth. Oh, and that he's a hateful, violent half-wit. Yeah, that's prime courtship material right there."It wasn't me. YES!Wait. Was this that Allister fellow?I drifted over and sat next to her. She looked at me and offered the com unit. "Bram, tell Pamma that there's no way I would want Michael Allister, ever."I ran this through my "girl talk" translator and said, "I could eat him, if either of you'd like. Seems like it might be the easiest thing to do.”