“Elena startled both of them by flying up so quickly that Stefan had to grab her by the waist to keep her from shooting toward the ceiling.I thought you had gravity!”So did I! What do I do?”Think heavy thoughts!”What if it doesn’t work?”We’ll buy you an anchor!”

“You do realize that I never thought you had a stellarreputation.” Her teasing tone made me smile.“What? You didn’t think I was next in line for Pope? Damn, I thought I had you fooled.”

“But I knew the way the people in the town thought about things. They always had some time left over from their life to bother about other people and what they did. They thought they had to get together to help other people out, like the time they got together about the woman who let a colored man borrow her car and told her the best place for her was up north with all the other nigger lovers, and the time they got the veterans with overseas wives out. If you were different from anybody in town, you had to get out. That's why everybody was so much alike. The way they talked, what they did, what they liked, what they hated. If somebody got to hate something and he was the right person, everybody had to hate it too, or people began to hate the ones who didn't hate it. They used to tell us in school to think for yourself, but you couldn't do that in the town. You had to think what your father thought all his life, and that was what everybody thought.”

“Well, he thought, one did what one had to do, so life went. No, one did what one had to do in order to do what one wanted to do - so life really went.”

“Eena had thought the whole idea of his picture was absolutely wonderful and had asked Willum what kind of animal she might be. He’d responded after only a moment of thought. “I think you’d be a crioness.” “Why is that?” “Because they can fly.” “Why would that remind you of me?” She’d been unable to guess his reasoning. “Because few animals can fly. You can do things others can’t do. Like flying. It’s magic.” “Oh. How very clever.” The comparison had left her both impressed and flattered.”

“Did she make you laugh? Did she love you as much as you loved her? Did she protect you and warm you and keep you from suffering? Valentine turned her eyes away from him, unable to face the empty answer in his face but not wanting to stop saying what she had thought for so long. "I saw how fascinating her mystery was to you. For my part, I think that the mystery is always greatest where there is the most-emptiness. A person full of life is never mysterious, on the contrary.”