“On Halloween night 2007, Jack walked into a tree branch and cracked open his first beer. The latter happened first. He was fifteen and angry.”

“And she couldn’t explain this very specific kind of terror. Because it was also a curiosity. Like she was eager for a bad thing to happen. To discover a bad thing for herself.”

“The airport was cool and whistled with air-conditioning. When I finally drifted off to fitful sleep I dreamt of ice floes and great white bears.”

“So what can you do? Wait as the sad burns the color red into you, against your consent. Who said anything about blue? Red. Sad is red and hot skin, dry skin, peeling skin.”

“‘Dammit Eelis, look around you. After so many years of destitution we’ve made our riches; God has alas given us our proper destiny with this whale.’”

“I guess on paper, the roadie’s job is to lift equipment, and I guess to some extent that’s what I do—plus a little bit more. I lift instruments, speakers, rigging, microphones, cameras, comatose bodies, the ethical burden of this lifestyle. And it would all be worth it.”

“She was wearing watermelon lip gloss but no mascara and she still wanted to swim. Starting birth control next year sounded like unscented lipstick and two layers of mascara and partial submersion with no movement. And Grace sounded like she was ready for that.”

“As I fought with myself, my eye fell on a young woman violently throwing her arms around a handsome soldier in clean uniform who, after a long embrace, kissed her so powerfully it seemed his lips would never leave hers again.”

“I saw them piling flowers and spices and herbs and coins in piles into a gleaming river and pushing it off into my world.”

“And forgive me if on your list of Happy Birthday messages you get part of my shopping list.”

“And Luca knows well that this is just being angsty, this unavoidable condition of his age along with all the other bullshit, but he also wants to say something, to know if Aristide, in all his outward composure, ever feels the same.”

“I know in his mind he repeats ‘The cavemen didn’t say, I love you.’ And it's ok, it's not something I need to hear.”

“But wasn’t it all a little… artificial? The corporate suit a mask for boredom. The fancy boyfriend a show-and-tell piece.”

“As I floated and sank at the same time, I wondered if this was what people saw before drowning to their death.”

“So it was an intimacy park, not a porn park?”