“What you’re saying is this spider, with a brain the size of strawberry seed, hid in your car with its face covered to avoid being gassed by insect spray.” He stood in front of me, laughing, peering down into my eyes. “And then, when the fumes dispersed, he set about plotting revenge. Once he’d come up with his plan, he exited your car and, even though he didn’t see which direction you went in, he found the front door because he knew you were inside this house.” Biting down on his bottom lip, Ric smirked. “Don’t you think, if he was as smart as all that, he’d have worn a mask before he ran out from under visor so you couldn’t recognise him on your doormat?”

“Clever enough when it suits you, aren’t you?”“I have my moments. That cat’s out,” he continued as he took his own jacket from the hook. “Take no pity on him should he come scratching at the door. Bub knew what he was when he insisted on moving out here with me.”“Did you remember to feed him?”“I’m not a complete moron.” Unoffended, he wrapped a scarf around his neck. “He has food enough, and if he didn’t, he’d go begging at your kitchen door. He’d do that anyway, just to shame me.”

“Soon only the street lamps rose clear and shone down on a mass that devoured everything, people and houses, we could not see more than three meters in front of us. The lights around us were hard to make out and Jesper stayed where he was; stretching out his arms like a blind man he said:'This is what it must have been like when the Man from Danzig was shipwrecked. He must have been frightened. He thought he knew where everything was, and then it was all sheer chaos. Put your hand in front of your eyes, Sistermine, and spin around three times, then tell me which is the way home.'I did as he said, I spun around so I almost fell down, I opened my eyes and peered in all directions.'I don't know.''Then anything can happen.”

“When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for, that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of your eyes.”

“When he’d started out, he’d expected to find his brother. What he’d never thought to find was the treasure that slept beside him now.Would you trade this to have Kieran back?It was a choice he was grateful he didn’t have to make. But in the end, he knew the truth.Catarina was his life. He would sacrifice anything for her.Anyone.”

“What exactly is your job here?’ ‘So that’s what you’ve dragged yourself out here to ask. See now I’m disappointed, you could have at least come out in that state just because you wanted to see me,’ he said with a smirk.‘How do you know that's not another reason?’‘I don't!’ he said, walking towards me. He stopped a few inches in front of me and looked deep into my eyes, while leaning on the car. I swallowed hard.”