“The voyage from San Francisco to Hawaii had been the most terrifying experience Greer and Cameron had ever gone through, even more terrible than the time they shot a deputy sheriff in Idaho ten times and he wouldn't die and Greer finallyhad to say to the deputy sheriff,"Please die because we don't want toshoot you again". And the deputy sheriff had said, "Ok, I'll die, but don't shoot me again"."We won't shoot you again", Cameron had said."Ok, I'm dead", and he was.”

“Sheriff Root: "Ask Me, I reckon it was niggers"Deputy: "How you reckon that, Sheriff Root?"Sheriff Root: "Kinda thing they do"Deputy: "What, burn two hundred people to death, right down to the bone? They do that?"Sheriff Root: "MARTIAN niggers”

“I pulled the phone toward me and punched in the number of the sheriff's office in Flat Mesa. The deputy at the desk put me straight through. The phone made a couple of clicks, and then the sheriff's voice sounded in my ear."Jones," he said. Dark, biting, laconic."Hey, Nash. It's Janet."There was a long silence."Fuck," Nash Jones said clearly, and he hung up on me.”

“The place was packed as we flooded in, all the patrons freezing at the sight of an armed sheriff, two deputies, an Indian, and a construction worker; we probably looked like the Village People.”

“He said a fortuneteller had told Mum's fortune once, and after that, she's never gone out on sea again. It was years ago, but she never has. Not once." said Conner"What did the fortuneteller say?" I asked"Dad wouldn't tell me. It must have been something really bad though.""maybe the fortuneteller said that Mum would die by drowning." I suggested."Don't be stupid Saph. A fortuneteller wouldn't ever say that to someone. You’re going to drown, that’ll be ten pounds please”

“He's not going to shoot us in the back by accident, is he?" Deputy Coltrain asked.I smiled, not sweetly. "He promised not to.”