Strange, I thought, how you can be living your dreams and your nightmares at the very same time.

I'll never understand ninety-nine percent of humanity. - Enoch

Maybe I could use a little metal on the inside, I thought. If I'd kept my heart better armored, where would I be now?Easy—I’d be at home, medicating myself into a monotone. Drowning my sorrows in video games. Working shifts at Smart Aid. Dying inside, day by day, from regret.

I wanted to thank you," I said.She wrinkled her nose and squinted like I'd said something funny. "Thank me for what?" she said."You give me strength I didn't know I had,"; I said. "You make me better.

A song and a smile from someone I cared about could be enough to distract me from all that darkness, if only for a little while.

Which was just well: goodbyes had never been my strong suit anyway, and lately my life had felt like an unbroken series of them. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

If.'If' always propelled my thoughts back to the present, because 'if' depended so much on keeping my wits about me. I couldn't properly sense things if I was distracted. 'If' demanded my full presence and participation in 'now.'If', as much as it scared me, also kept me sane.

Stars, too, were time travelers. How many of these ancient points of light were the last echoes of suns now dead? How many had been born but their light not yet come this far? If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone? I had always known the sky was full of mysteries - but not until now had I realized how full of them the earth was.

Our debt was too great and the words thank you too small.