“A pause. It might have been pregnant. I’ve never been sure how to tell if a silence has conceived or not.”

“Not surprisingly, the kitchen was the most interesting, but only because I discovered a package of Oreos in the cupboard.”

“I froze like a startled bunny. Fumbling the disk into my purse, I cut my eyes toward the hallway. Had I locked the front door? Of course I had. Only a moron would break into someone’s house and forget to lock the door. Damn it! I’d forgotten to lock the door.”

“All the worry people expend over not existing after they die, yet nary a one ever seems to spare a moment to worry about not having existed before they were conceived. Or at all. After all, one sperm over and we would have been our sisters, and we'd never have been missed.”

“Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.”

“His mind reeled. Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness-and promised answers-he could, conceivably (though it was almost unimaginable), ask someone, some adult, his father perhaps: "Do you lie?"But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received was true.”

“There was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship”