“She did like him...sometimes. When he was not a complete knacker.”

“Sometimes Peter treated her like she was the only thing in the forest. Sometimes he was so distracted by the things around him that she had to keep up or be left behind. But a lot of times, she knew he did it on purpose, and she didn't have to know why. He seemed to have reasons for doing things even he didn't understand.”

“Then he kissed her. At his lips' touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”

“And then she did something completely unexpected. Having spent the last five minutes complaining about him, and not believing anything that he told her, she came over and hugged him, and kissed his hair.”

“and then he wanted to say he was sorry, but just that sometimes he felt understandable and sometimes he worried when they bickered and she went a while without saying she loved him, but he restrained himself.”

“Sometimes Sonny felt like he was the only human creature in the town. It was a bad feeling, and it usually came on him in the mornings early, when the streets were completely empty, the way they were one Saturday morning in late November.”