“I’ll tell you something,' he said, as if he had said nothing that day. 'You’re walking on gallows ground, and there’s a rope around your neck and a raven-bird on each shoulder waiting for your eyes, and the gallows tree has deep roots, for it stretches from heaven to hell, and our world is only the branch from which the rope is swinging.”

“Is a rope around the neck and a drop from the gallows all that we can do for a guy who lived his life without ever smiling? ~ Inoue”

“WHAT A CONCUBINE SHOULD NEVER SAY: You wanna swing? Fine! See that tree branch? The one with the rope...”

“He really had experienced every tiniest increment of time in the four decades since then, and yet here he was surprised to be suddenly old and crippled. Turned out the rope didn't care if you noticed every daisy on the path to the gallows.”

“[Anna] In February, I woke up from a nap. A bouquet of flowers gathered from the various bushes and shrubs scattered around the island lay on the blanket beside me, a small length of rope wound around their stems.I found T.J. down at the shore. “Someone’s been checking the calendar.”He grinned. “I didn’t want to miss Valentine’s Day.”I kissed him. “You’re sweet to me.”Pulling me closer, he said, “It’s not hard, Anna.”I stared into T.J.’s eyes, and he started to sway. My arms went around his neck and we danced, moving in a circle, the sand soft and warm under our feet.“You don’t need music, do you?”“No,” T.J. said. “But I do need you.”

“Her eyes watered and she was a foot taller than any of her sisters, mostly because of the length of her neck which would one day hang from the end of a rope.”