…he’d assumed their relationship would go on forever. It was going on now, but in another way, like the rearrangement of the stars, which were all still in the sky, just burning in unexpected places.

We just move on, don’t we, with traitors still amongst us? But there was one thought that wouldn’t go away. If I loved him, I would forgive him.

The sexual contact before this?“It was the first time.”The woman looked at Rat again, harder. The silence was more painful than the words. What she had just heard went beyond plain immorality. It was ridiculous.

Olga was better, in the sun, where he could see every pore in her skin. Get closer. Feel her next to him. It was all he wanted in the world. It was the last thing in the world that he could do.

But this bus was a bit too full. The driver only appeared to control the glass and metal around him. In reality, he was at the nose of a travelling paroxysm.

I guess if you get too close, the twinkling stops; they don’t look like stars anymore.

Were the stars against him? A woman's fingers are quicker in the sky and shine more brightly.

You know what people are doing on the other side of the world, what’s happening on another planet, but not what’s going on inside the person next to you.

We put our flags in soil when we arrive, as if it now belongs to us and we know where we are.