I know because I read.
It was not a curse to fully inhabit your body.
The gasps catch from girl to girl like a brush fire.
Alma Rene LaVoy was the most alive person Ling Chan has ever met. The pretty chorus girl was the light in the sky over Chinatown during a New Years celebration.
He put a hand to the cool, painted stones bearing witness to so many names, so many histories. In the mural, there were painted lines for the Underground, like scars stretched across the skin of the infected nation. There were wounds and then there were wounds. Some were so great Memphis had no idea how they could ever be healed.
Nobody’s killing any cats.” Miss Lillian glowered. “It’s what we’ve always done.” “Yeah, well, I’m changing how things are done.” Miss Lillian started to protest, but Miss Addie cut her off. “Very well. We could stand to change.
Rest. Then speak of what you know. Show them what you have seen. Witness until their comfort yields to questions. Till their eyes cry with truth. Till their ears would hear the voices of tomorrow. Till their hearts, heavy with knowledge, beat in understanding.
Evie yanked him to safety by the edge of his shirt, ripping it. “Thanks. You owe me a shirt,” Sam said. “You owe me twenty dollars.
Duff’s little moans traveled up her spine, made her head buzz. And another thought grabbed hold: She was doing this. She had the power to do this. THat she could be both completely vulnerable and totally in control was mind-blowing.
Theta sat next to Memphis and watched Mr. and Mrs. Chan laughing about some private joke. They were a mixed couple, and they were happy. No one seemed to be bothering them. But they were also here in the few blocks of Chinatown. What happened when they crossed Canal Street into the rest of the city? What happened when they went out into the rest of the country?
Choices. That’s what made a man. Wasn’t it?
This is the first family dinner I ever had,” she said. “The first of many,” Evie promised.
Theta’s hand slid just slightly toward Memphis’s. He inched his forward, too, just grazing the tips of her fingers with his.
You see, Mr. Phillips, the truth of it is, I am so very American.” She slapped the pen down on the onerous paper and slid them both toward her boss. “And that is precisely why I can’t – no, why I refuse to sign this.
The citizens rise and wash, shave and brush. They don stockings and dresses, pants, shirts, and suspenders. They button up their need. Affix their aspirations. Tuck histories neatly inside drawers, creating themselves as they go, a rhapsody of reinvention.
The only thing I’m trying to steal is your heart, doll.” Sam smirked. “You’re not that talented a thief, Sam Lloyd.
Sam had a skill that often let him take what he needed. But you couldn’t do that with love. It had to be given. Shared.
They’re too tired for bathing, but they’re not too tired for dreams. For dreams, too, are ghosts, desires chased in sleep, gone by morning. The longing of dreams draws the dead, and the city hall to many dreams.
New York is a city short on patience, cleanliness, clement weather, and citizens who hold faint opinions. It is not a city short of people trying to make a career of being famous, no matter what the opportunity.
Go on, darling,” she said, batting her lashes. “Tell them the rest.” “Riiiight,” Sam said, suppressing a smirk.