“I'd never heard any noise quite so welcome as the click that a shotgun made when it wasn't killing me.”

“I didn't say anything - just held up my hands and shuffled backward toward the door. Antagonizing a little old lady holding a shotgun seemed like a very bad idea.”

“I never would have guessed that matches and lighters would be among the things I'd miss the most if civilization collapsed”

“Then, we waited. Waited for the noise to end. Waited for the house to fall on our heads. Waited for something, anything to change.”

“I wanted, needed to see her so badly that it woke me up at night.”

“A night spent spooning with your girlfriend isn't nearly so exciting when your uncle is curled up against your other side.”

“So I thought I’d feel different afterward, after the visible neon sign proclaiming 'virgin' had blinked out on my forehead. I’d spent years obessessing about it, so it seemed like somthing should have changed. Maybe it would have if I’d still been at Ceder Falls High School surrounded by the gossip and the braggadocio of teenage boys. But on my uncle's farm, nobody noticed, or at least nobody said anything. The next day, like every day, we dug corn, chopped wood, and carried water. And it didn’t really change much between Darla and me, either. Yes, making love was fun, but it wasn’t really any more fun than anything we’d already been doing together. Just different.”