“I think that maybe forgiveness is like change - it comes in small steps. (256)”

“One small changed family doesn't calculate into a world that has been spinning for a billion years. But one small change makes the world spin differently in a billion ways for one family.”

“My memory is coming back. It is curious how it comes. Each day, a rush of pieces, loosely connected, unimportant bits, snake through me. They click, click, click into my brain, like links being snapped together. And then they are done. A small chain of memories that fill in one tiny part of my life. They come out of nowhere, and most are not important.”

“I almost could.I could almost leave and never look back.Like Mr. Bender, I could leave everything I was behind, including my name.Leave because of Allysand all the things she says I am.Leave because of all the things I am afraid that I will never be again.Leave, because maybe I’m not enough.Leave because of Allys, Senator Harris, and half the world knows better than Father and Mother and maybe Ethan, too.Leave.Because the old Jenna was so absorbed in her own needs that she said yes when she knows she should have said no,and the shame of nightcould be hidden in a new place behind a new name.But friends are complicated.There is the staying.Staying because of Kara and Locke and all that they will never be except trapped.Staying because for them, time is running out and I am their their last chance.Staying for the old Jenna and all she owes Kara and Locke and maybe all the new Jenna owes them, too.Staying because of ten percent and all I hope I might be.Staying because of Mr. Bender’s erased life and regrets.Staying for connection.Staying because two meis enough to make one of meworth nothing at all.And staying because maybe Lily does love the new Jennaas much as the old one, after all.Because maybe, given time, people do change,maybe laws change.Maybe we all change.”

“These memories descend out of nowhere, giving me pieces of who I was, but their significance is lost. I sigh and resume my walk, not knowing if this memory is important, or just more of the jumbled trivia of Jenna's life, like sock shopping. Maybe that is all any life is composed of, trivia that eventually adds up to a person, and maybe I just don't have enough of it yet to be a whole one.”

“On a small planet where minute follows minute, day follows day, year follows year, where tradition marches on with a deafening orderly beat-sometimes the order is disturbed by a dreamer, and artist, a scribbler-sometimes the beat is changed by one person at a time.”

“Where we are going, I don't know. It doesn't seem to be the place that is important but the steps in between.”