“My heart is broken, broken in a way that will never be healed, broken in a way that feels like it’s going to kill me, too, right here on this stupid, freezing beach”

“HEREIt’s-Can I say?It’s like the song of a family where everything’s always all right, it’s a song of belonging that makes you belong just by hearing it, it’s a song that’ll always take care of you and never leave you. If you have a heart, it breaks, if you have a heart that’s broken, it fixes.”

“More real, more there, like it's just the most incredible thing in the world that we're both still alive and I feel my chest get all funny and tight and I think, Here she is, right here, my Viola, she came for me, she's here-And I find myself thinking how I want to take her hand again and never let it go, to feel the skin of it, the warmth of it, hold it tight against my own hand...”

“I was just trying to stay alive, looking for ways to find you, hoping you hadn't left me behind.""Never," I say. "Not never."He looks back up at me. "I'd never leave you neither.""You promise?""Cross my heart, hope to die," he says, grinning shyly."I promise, too," I say and I smile at him. "I ain't never leaving you, Todd Hewitt, not never again.”

“Or perhaps we should just ask Todd."I pound the glass right at his face. He doesn't even flinch.And then she says, "Todd would never tell you. Never."And the Mayor just looks at me.And he smilesMy stomach sinks, my heart drops, my head feels so light I feel like I'm going to drop right to the ground.Oh, Viola-Viola, please-Forgive me."Captain Hammar," the Mayor says and Viola's plunged into the water again, unable to not scream out in fright as down she goes."NO!" I shout, pressing myself against the mirror.But the Mayor ain't even looking at her.He's looking right at me, as if he could see me even if I was behind a brick wall."STOP IT!" I shout as she's thrashing again-And more-And more-"VIOLA!"And I'm pounding even tho my hands are breaking-And Mr. Hammar is grinning and holding her there-"VIOLA!"And her wrist are starting to bleed from where she's pulling-"I'LL KILL YOU!"-I'm shouting into the Mayor's face-With all my Noise-"I'LL KILL YOU!"-And still holding her there-"VIOLA! VIOLA!"-But it's Davy-Of all people-It's Davy who stops it.”

“And I have this stupid little thought that Aaron didn't survive the croc attack after all, that he died but he's so pissed off at me that dying didn't stop him from coming here to kill me anyway.”

“I rub the ears of my dog, my stupid goddam ruddy great dog that I never wanted but who hung around anyway and who followed me thru the swamp and who bit Aaron when he was trying to choke me and who found Viola when she was lost and who's licking my hand with his little pink tongue and whose eye is still mostly squinted shut from where Mr. Prentiss Jr. kicked him and whose tail is way way shorter from where Matthew Lyle cut it off when my dog - my dog - went after a man with a machete to save me and who's right there when I need pulling back from the darkness I fall into and who tells me who I am whenever I forget.”