There was a beauty in chaos, a wildness that hinted at things gone wrong and mistakes overcome.
The Great Alone,” Leni said. That was what Robert Service called Alaska.
She wanted to be with him, and though the realization frightened her, it also set her heart racing with anticipation. When she was with Nick, she was a different woman. Some of his glitter fell onto her and made her feel beautiful and sparkly and more alive.
Sophie was too old for lies and too young for the truth.
Every barrier she turned into a gate.
You have so much love to give. It must hurt to hold it in all the time.
A watering system had kept everything alive; plants, like people, learned to grow in rocky terrain.
He had the kind of smile that inhabited every part of his face-his eyes, his cheeks; there was even a dimple. I wear my heart on my sleeve, that smile said, and no woman could be unmoved by such transparency.
Inside was a library unlike any Leni had ever seen. Row upon row of wooden desks, decorated with green banker’s lamps, were positioned beneath an arched ceiling. Gothic chandeliers hung above the desks. And the books! She’d never seen so many. They whispered to her of unexplored worlds and unmet friends and she realized that she wasn’t alone in this new world. Her friends were here, spine out, waiting for her as they always had.
A dad... he teaches responsibility and accountability, but a mom... ah, a mom teaches her child to dream, to reach for the stars and to believe in fairy tales.
Once, she had taken love for granted. Never again. Love was the sun and the moon and the stars in a world that was otherwise cold and dark.
The darkness seemed to be rising rather than the sun falling. As if darkness were the natural order around here.
Love matters. Maybe its the only thing that does.
Leni stared down at the sea, rolling inexorably toward her. Nothing you did could hold back that rising tide. One mistake or miscalculation and you could be stranded or washed away. All you could do was protect yourself by reading the charts and being prepared and making smart choices.
Children become adults who become children again.
I think maybe ‘in love’ has the shelf life of whipping cream. No matter how you handle it, it goes sour. But if you’re lucky, you get past ‘in love’ and end up just loving someone.
Ever since you were a girl, you’ve been running for what you wanted... Now you’re lost, but you’re still running full speed... How will you ever figure out what you want when everything is a blur?
I want to imagine there will be peace when I am gone, that I will see all of the people I have loved and lost. At least that I will be forgiven. I.
Leni was afraid to stay and afraid to leave. It was strange – stupid, even – but she often felt like the only adult in her family, as if she were the ballast that kept the creaky Allbright boat on an even keel.
She needed Matthew, but not to save her or complete her or reinvent her. Her love for him was the clearest, cleanest, strongest emotion she’d ever felt. It was like opening your eyes or growing up, realizing that you had it in you to love like this. Forever. For all time. Or for all the time you had.