“She remembered reading somewhere that Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. Eleanor wished there were a hundred ways to say her name. She thought, maybe, if her name was howled from all corners of the world, in a million different voices, that she might explode into a cloud of snow. Light and separate, her parts floating down onto the world in a series of beautiful crystalline moments.”

“Do you love her?' she asked him.'Always have,' he said.'Then why in the world would you leave her alone?”

“Here's a secret to love," she said. "Always make sure that the man loves you just a breath more than you love him.""Oh Mimi, I love your Papa more than any woman ever loved any man. And still, he loves me a breath more. It's the only healthy way. If a woman loves too much- if her love is heavier- she won't see anything but him. She'll be blind to the world. Women are made like that. We have to teach ourselves not to become obsessed. True love lies in peace, not torture.”

“The air between them began to settle into a silence. Awkward, yet softly exciting. Like an unexpected snow day.”

“What did you say to me Itsy? The day when you broke your silence?"Itsy shrugged and shuffled back into her own apartment.”

“The truth is, time marches on and you have two choices: You move forward, come what may, and you experience all the sour and sweet things that fly at you from around corners, or you sit still. Don't sit still.”

“I can still feel them there. His lips on mine. His words in my ear that day."Itsy, say you'll be my girl. My secret. Oh, please say it.”