“the inletour friend looks as he didwhen we first knew him,and until I wake I believeI will die of grief, for I knowthat this boy grew into a manwho was a faithful friendwho died.”

“Cool!” he said. “Did you know if you wake someone up when they’re sleepwalking, they’ll die?” I threw him a cynical look. “Where’d you hear that?” He shrugged. “I read it somewhere. We should try it. Next time, I’ll wake you up, and if you die…”

“I die the king's faithful servant, but God's first.”

“You never really knew a man, he said, until you saw him die”

“When we were kids we always used to say, ‘Okay, whoever dies first, get a message through.’When John died, I thought, ‘Well, maybe we’ll get a message,’ because I know he knew the deal. I haven’t had a message from John.”

“If what Granma Mary Rommely said is true, then it must be that no one ever dies, really. Papa is gone, but he's still here in many ways. He's here in Neeley who looks just like him and in Mama who knew him so long. He's here in his mother who began him and who is still living. Maybe I will have a boy some day who looks like Papa and has all of Papa's good without the drinking. And that boy will have a boy. And that boy will have a boy. It might be there is no real death.”