In my mind, I said the best things to Elton. I wrote countless excellent notes that I never sent. I came up with clever and highly detailed imaginary situations in which we were thrown together and it somehow made him realize that life without me was a hollow shell. But he didn’t look like a hollow shell. He looked like he was back on the soccer team, all calf muscles and lean body.
That was something they taught you in anxiety therapy- the thoughts may come, but you don’t have to chase them all. It was sort of the opposite of good detective work, in which you had to follow every lead.
I know no one is perfect, that behind every facade of perfection is a writhing mess of subterfuge and secret sorrows... but even taking that into account, Noah was pretty much perfect.
Mostly, Stevie forgot she had a body, and when someone else noticed her body, it made her look down and go, huh. Would you look at that. How long has that been there?
But knowing something is beautiful and caring about it are two very different things.
Slippers always seemed like kind of a nonsense item until she came to Ellingham and felt the bathroom floor on the first proper day of wintry weather. Once skin touched tile and part of her soul died, she knew what slippers were for.
How does this keep happening to you?” David said. “Because I look,” Stevie replied. “A lot of things happen when you go out and do them on purpose.
Early the next morning, they were on a tram out to the far edge of Amsterdam. Ginny liked the tram. It was like an overgrown toy train that had gotten loose on the streets. She looked out and saw the Netherlands wobbling by – its ancient houses and constant canals and people in practical shoes.
Don’t follow someone into the dark, Stevie. I’ve seen it happen too many times.
I felt so alone on that train... a weird, unnatural kind of alone that bore into me. It was feeling just beyond fear and somewhere to the left of sadness.
It’s two thousand pages and nothing happens. It’s all terrible. I wrote the first book and then I forgot how to write. It used to be that I would sit and write and I would go into some other world – I could see it all. I was totally in another place. But the second it became something I had to do, something in me broke. It’s like I used to know the way to some magical land and I lost the map.
I like to look nice when I go to see His Majesty, the Burger King.
The thing about looking just a little bit means it’s really easy to look a little bit more.
But when we live, we believe that we have a right to everything in the universe – that everything is ours to touch.
Kaz was always enthusiastic. His special interest was the environment, and he spent a lot of time getting Ellingham to convert to composting toilets. Kaz cared a lot about composting toilets.
When the darkness came for Dottie, it was quick and it was total.
Maybe he understood how terrifying it is to do the thing you meant to do.
How are you so smart?” Stevie asked. “I read a lot,” Janelle said, smiling. She unzipped the front of her bag, shoved her pass inside and secured the lanyard to a clip, and zipped the bag back up again. Janelle did everything completely, even putting her pass away. “And I’m just amazing.
Stevie always tried to be truthful, but she didn’t want to make her first acquaintance in her new house and say, “Your show was mediocre and overrated but I see why you are valued: for your looks and deep voice.” People tended not to warm to that kind of thing.
It’s everyone’s dream... Come to Ellingham Academy, move a ramp out of a hole in the dark. – Nate.