“You’re hurt,” she commented. And I care? Okay. It’s official. I’m my own species now: pathetic-deathwish-osaurus…I sooo hear extinction calling me.”

“Okay," I began. "You’re too old for me. You’re scary. It’s creepy that you were so all over my mom and now you’re all over me.”

“Okay, you got me. The screenwriter is a vampire. Now go to your own desk and call Mimi so she can call me and I can get my day started”

“Her mother leaned in. “She calls him ‘Colossus.’Now what do you think that is for?”“I’m sure she’s fine—”“Not if she is with Colossus. She askedme last week if I could get her birth control.”“Okay, okay. What do you want me to do?”“I want you to find that campground andbring your sister home.”....“Fine.”“You’re going to go now?”“Do I have any choice? It’s either that or let Lucy get impregnated by the Colossus, right?”

“I love you present tense,” I whispered, and then put my hand on the middle of his chest and said, “It’s okay, Gus. It’s okay. It is. It’s okay, you hear me?” I had—and have—absolutely no confidence that he could hear me. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Okay,” I said. “Okay.”

“Roseanne, Roseanne, if I called to you now, my own self calling to my own self, would you hear me? And if you could hear me, would you heed me?”