“Georgina, I need your help''Reaching into her purse, she pulled out two pages torn from magazines.''With wha-oh'' My stomach twisted uncomfotably, and I hoped I wouldn't be joining Doug in the bathroom. The pages showed photos of wedding dresses.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a Georgina Kincaid Instruction Manual around somewhere to help me avoid these embarrassing blunders in the future.”“We sell them downstairs.”“Oh yeah? Is there a page on how to woo the fair Georgina?”“Page? Hell, there’s a whole chapter.”“Required reading, I’d imagine.”“Definitely.”

“You're ruining that book!" He pointed to the page I'd torn out. "That's a perfectly good book!" Holding his gaze, I reached down and ripped another page out. "I'm making roses." "Well, it's my book." "Sorry." I tore out another.”

“Oh, I brought you something." Her mom pulled a bag from her purse. "I know how you like T-shirts," she said.Kylie couldn't help but think, My mom went to England and all I got was a T-shirt, but she smiled and pulled it out of the bag and then chuckled when she read the script across the front: My mom went to England and all I got was this T-shirt."Perfect," Kylie said.”

“The other day I found her passport in her drawer when I was putting away my dad's laundered handkerchiefs. I wish I hadn't. For the purpose of my story, she should have it with her. I sat on my dad's bed and flipped through page after empty page. No stamps. No exotic locales. No travel-worn smudges or creases. Just the ID information and my mother's black-and-white photo which if it were used in a psychology textbook on the meaning of facial expressions would be labelled: Obscenely, heartbreakingly hopeful.”

“Amanda took the torn page from Maniac. To her, it was the broken wing of a bird, a pet out in the rain.”