“We were like astronauts floating through a starless universe.”

“If I had to shut my eyes it wouldn’t have been any darker. We were like astronauts floating in a starless universe.”

“Weeks passed like boats waiting to sail into the starless dawn, we were full of aimless endless darkness.”

“It is universally understood that, as if it were nothing more substantial than vapor floating in the sky, every emotion of a woman is bound to end in a shower.”

“There is only darkness, starless and complete. The waves glitter like a million dull knives.”

“As suburban children we floated at night in swimming pools the temperature of blood; pools the color of Earth as seen from outer space. We would float and be naked—pretending to be embryos, pretending to be fetuses—all of us silent save for the hum of the pool filter. Our minds would be blank and our eyes closed as we floated in warm waters, the distinction between our bodies and our brains reduced to nothing—bathed in chlorine and lit by pure blue lights installed underneath diving boards. Sometimes we would join hands and form a ring like astronauts in space; sometimes when we felt more isolated in our fetal stupor we would bump into each other in the deep end, like twins with whom we didn’t even know we shared a womb. ”