“He wanted to leave the past a few hundred miles down the road, shake it off like dust. But that ws the problem with the past. It kept finding him.”

“Unless society came out past Flat Rock Crossroads, kept on past Booker T. High School, hung two rights, a left, turned in on Milk Farm Road and found Roland plowing a tobacco field, jerked him off the tractor, warped him and set him back up there without anybody riding by and noticing, blame can't be laid on society.”

“He kept his head down in what seemed to be a prayer. “He counts. You’ve smiled at him four hundred and forty-six times as of a few minutes ago. He announces the number every time I see him.”

“You got the impression that he never needed to sleep - just ten-thousand-mile checkups and dust him off occasionally.”

“I loved him like a fever. Then he left. He kicked through love like it was dust and he kept on walking.”

“If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age. ”