“I need a friend and you seemed nicest. I think you and I can have more fun than those fake people on the other side.”

“I’m here to help you. You deserve more than this world will ever offer you.”

“It won’t be the same. Just because we have the choice of having anything we want without having to lift a finger, we don’t have to take the shortcut. As you’ve seen, we enjoy doing most of the things by ourselves. Food cooked or a house built by hand is more precious.”

“She would also be creating her own bridal bouquet. She wanted to feel the fragility and softness of each petal. And to make the single flowers stronger than they’d been separately. Just as she was stronger now, together with people who loved and accepted her.”

“The reason you’re being treated so badly is because you don’t belong in Mimbeye. As long as you’re there, you’ll experience pain. If you want to escape it, you should come where you belong.”

“She would prove to everyone she could do everything. She wouldn’t let her disability be an excuse, wouldn’t give anyone reason to pity her.”

“This is the strongest I have ever wanted a family. Other people to worry with. I am the only person worrying for her and it feels to me like this diminishes her odds of recovery. To have many people praying for you suddenly seems like a necessary thing and I consider telling the woman next to me what is happening, if only to have another person thinking about my Mom.”