“A Sister, dipped in blood”

“Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.”

“Nevertheless, blood is thicker than water, as anyone knows who has tasted both.”

“There's blood, a taste I remember. It tastes of orange popsicles, penny gumballs, red licorice, gnawed hair, dirty ice.”

“We're ankle deep in blood, and all because we ate the birds, we ate them a long time ago, when we still had the power to say no.”

“Children were vehicles for passing things along. These things could be kingdoms, rich wedding gifts, stories, grudges, blood feuds. Through children, alliances were forged; through children, wrongs were avenged. To have a child was to set loose a force in the world.”

“I won't fatten them in cages, though. I won't ply them with poisoned fruit items. I won't change them into clockwork images or talking shadows. I won't drain out their life's blood. They can do all those things for themselves.”