“He felt a fluttering inside his chest that he mistook for an air pocket - probably left from when he pushed himself through the cage. He had no way of knowing that the fluttering was a single beat from the fleeting memory of a heart.”

“Joie," he said with his lips hovering over mine. "What?" I felt my heart flutter. "Shut up," he muttered and then he kissed me.”

“I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,-When he beats his bars and would be free;It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings-I know why the caged bird sings!”

“He felt all at once like an ineffectual moth, fluttering at the windowpane of reality, dimly seeing it from outside.”

“Then his beautiful lips touched hers. A fluttering of wings, a cry of angels, a single beat of two hearts.”

“...and when he thought about the way she laughed, as though she owned the air around her, his heart thundered inside his chest, a lonely rada.”