“So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.”

“This true difference in me now: I had these experiances, these tales, more of this life. So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.”

“It was like those songs I'd heard as a child, each so familiar, and all mine. When i got older and realized the words were sad, the stories tragic, it didn't make me love them any less. By then they were already part of me, woven into my conciousness & memory”

“But those words were only the middle of the story. There was a beginning here, too.”

“There was no short answer to this; like so much else, it was a long story. But what really makes any story real is knowing someone will hear it. And understand.”

“I'd wanted a real kiss, something to remember, but i'd long ago learned not to be picky with farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised.You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a goodbye at all.”

“So while it seemed like you were seeing everything, you really weren't. Just bits and pieces that looked like a whole.”