“I didn't expect a knife, though. Is it the one missing from the kitchen?""Did Rand report it?" I felt betrayed. Why hadn't he just asked for it back?"No. It just makes sense to keep track of large kitchen knives, so when one goes missing you're not surprised when someone attacks you with it.”

“That's why I bake. To fill fairies with goodness."And it was true, she realized. She didn't run the kitchen just to boss other fairies around. She didn't give orders just to make herself feel important. Well, at least she wouldn't anymore. No. The day before, she hadn't missed that part of her job at all. She had missed the baking. She had missed creating something for others to enjoy.And, oh, how she wanted to go back to work!”

“I want to ask him where that kitchen is. Where he's from. But he seems guarded. Or maybe it's me. Maybe making friends is a specific skill, and I missed the lesson.”

“I miss you', he admitted. 'I'm here', she said. 'That's when I miss you most. When you're here. When you aren't here, when you're just a ghost of the past or a dream from another life, it's easier then.”

“Sometimes life just did things, he felt, and they didn't have to make sense. It helped when they did, and often the sense of a thing was just around a corner, but that didn't mean you ever got to see it.”

“I didn't talk all the way home, trying not to cry. A missed lesson! But why did it bother me so much? I'd missed lessons before. So what? Mrs. Lawrence was coming back, wasn't she? She had a right to visit her son in Houston, didn't she?...How could I explain I felt as thought part of my personal scaffolding was broken, and how I dangled one-handed from a rope? One-handed from a rope on a sinking ship? (128)”