“time to put on your miner's hat and headed toward the bright light.”

“The drone in my ear, it’s like the tornado drill in elementary school, the hand-cranked siren that rang mercilessly, all of us hunched over on ourselves, facing the basement walls, heads tucked into our chests. Beth and me wedged tight, jeaned legs pressed against each other. The sounds of our own breathing. Before we all stopped believing a tornado, or anything, could touch us, ever”

“If you didn't feel it on your body long after he'd left, was it really worth laying for him? I wanted to feel that.”

“She said I'd better not make her unhappy because I oughta know that she's never unhappy alone.”

“When you have nothing inside you, you feel everything more, and feel you can control it all.”

“No, this is throwing up like coming off the tilt-a-whirl at age seven, like discovering that dead rat under the porch, like finding out someone you loved never loved you at all.”

“I think she might cry. In her way, she is.”