I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste,in fear, and had brought about their own destruction
He wondered what lay in the far distance where he had never gone. The land didn’t end beyond those nearby communities. Were there hills Elsewhere? Were there vast wind-torn areas like the place he had...
He was in a room filled with people, and it was warm, with firelight glowing on a hearth. He could see through a window that outside it was night, and snowing. There were colored lights: red and green...
He saw all of the light and colour and history it contained and carried in its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going.
But the moment passed and was followed by an urge, a need, a passionate yearning to share the warmth with the one person left for him to love. Aching from the effort, he forced the memory of warmth in...
But somehow the small red-painted sled had become a symbol of courage and hope.
Annemarie admitted to herself, snuggling there in the quiet dark, that she was glad to be an ordinary person who would never be called upon for courage.
And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular.
Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained too, an understanding of solitude and its joy.
All of it was new to him. After a life of Sameness and predictability, he was awed by the surprises that lay beyond each curve of the road. He slowed the bike again and again to look with wonder at wi...
A book, to me, is almost sacrosanct: such an individual and private thing. The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own im...
An urge, a need, a passionate yearning to share the warmth with the one person left for him to love.
Now he knew that there were communities everywhere, sprinkled across the vast landscape of the known world, in which people suffered. Not always from beatings and hunger, the way he had. But from igno...
It closed, created a clasp from willow twigs that he’d soaked to soften and
Eating together as always: Lily chattering away, Mother and Father making their customary
All of the citizens had been ordered to go into the nearest building and stay there. IMMEDIATELY, the rasping voice through the speakers had said. LEAVE YOUR BICYCLES WHERE THEY ARE.
What’s your problem, Sam? she asked in a bored voice. If they didn’t deal with his first, he would keep interrupting. A pea in my nose, he said, sounding frightened. You put a pea in your nose? Sam! W...
What's his comfort object called? Lily asked, picking up thestuffed creature which had been placed beside the newchild in hisbasket.Father glanced at it. Hippo, he said.Lily giggled at the strange wor...
Thinking of those times as he passed the cemetery on his way to the evening’s festivities, Gabe recalled the day Matty’s body had been found and carried home. Gabe had been young then, only eight, a r...
They both walked to the center of the room. Jonas put his tunic back on. 'Goodbye, sir,' he said. 'Thank you for my first day.' The old man nodded to him. He looked drained, and a little sad. 'Sir?' J...