It was all out there – the mystery, the beauty; beyond her ability to see now, but there just the same. It was simply a matter of timing and perspective, what one saw.
Night swept in like nothing Leni had ever seen before, like the winged shadow of a creature too big and predatory to comprehend.
Leni heard her mother start to cry, and somehow that made it worse, as if her tears watered this ugliness, made it grow.
We must never forget these remarkable women and the daring, dangerous choices they made to save others.
Of course. But how can I let her believe it’s all right to do nothing in times such as these?
For six hours, Isabelle sat at the table in the apartment on rue de Saint-Simon. They brought in others from the network and gave them tasks: to gather clothes for the pilots and stockpile supplies. They consulted maps and devised routes and began the long, uncertain process of setting up safe houses along the way. At some point, they began to see it as a reality instead of merely a bold and daring idea.
She hadn’t known until now how love could erupt into existence like the big bang theory and change everything in you and everything in the world.
Falling in love with you was the best thing I ever did.
Although she’d been young – only four – Isabelle thought she’d learned what alone meant, but she’d been wrong. In the three years she’d lived at Le Jardin, she’d at least had a sister, even if Vianne was never around. Isabelle remembered peering down from the upstairs window, watching Vianne and her friends from a distance, praying to be remembered, to be invited, and then when.
Built in the seventies, I’d guess, back when just about everything was ugly. There.
True love is a rare thing. We lean on it for years without botherin’ to look at what’s holdin’ us up. It lasts forever, as the poets say, but life doesn’t.
Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.
She could leave them. She could break free and go her own way. It would be frightening, but it couldn’t be worse than staying, watching this toxic dance of theirs, letting their world become her world until there was nothing left of her at all, until she was as small as a comma.
If she opened her mouth she might start screaming. Or if she looked at him she might cry, might demand to know how it was that children could be shot in the dark for nothing.
Leni knew it was crazy, but it seemed to her as if they were having a conversation without saying anything, talking about books and durable friendships and overcoming insurmountable odds. Maybe they weren’t talking about Sam and Frodo at all, maybe they were talking about themselves and how they had somehow grown up and stayed kids at the same time.
The door banged open, bringing with it a rush of cold night air. Dried leaves scudded inside, dancing across the floor, plastering themselves like tiny black hands to the stones of the fireplace. The flames within shivered and thinned. The door slammed shut.
The true voyage of self-discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. – MARCEL PROUST.
She had felt lonely for years, but now she truly was alone.
That’s why you’re so strong and I’m not.” “You will have to be,” Isabelle said. “For Sophie.” Vianne drew in a breath. And there it was. The reason she couldn’t eat a bowl of arsenic or throw herself in front of a train.
It can’t be true,” she said. “The worst can always be true,” Papa said grimly.