“How did you find me? The heartstone? he says.
I look into his eyes. His silver moonlight eyes. The still calmwater heart of him.
I don’t need no stone to find you. I’d find you anywhere, I says.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Some things are jest too big to fergive.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Sometimes the strong give birth to the weak. An sometimes the weak grow to be strong”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“I push him off, sit up an start puttin my clothes to rights. He's made a heroic effort to undress me.
You work fast, I says.
Yer a moving target, I hafts. Here, he says, lemme help.
I button, he unbuttons. I tuck, he untucks.
I slap his hand. I'll do it myself, I says.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“You have a rare fire within you. The power to change things. The courage to act in the service of something greater than yourself.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Who am I?
What do I believe?
Never lose sight of what I believe in. Never, no matter what happens.
What one person does affects all of us.
We're all bound together. We're all threads in a single garment of destiny.
I make my destiny myself.
By the choices I make.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“We have a destiny, he says. Together, Saba. We're born to command, not obey.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Jack took a shot through the seat of his pants. He tells me next time I hold a target shoot he ain't available....
Listen, Saba. We came, we had a look, there ain't nuthin here. But, hey. It ain't bin a complete waste of time. I got my butt shot. You must be pleased about that.
I'm sure you deserve it fer somethin, I says.
Oh, I most certainly do, he says.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Molly an Slim an Mercy perch, uncomfortable, on barrels and whatnot. They're tryin to eat, but without much success.
Emmi's in the grip of giddy excitement. She jigs an hops all around 'em, with her tongue goin clickety clack.
They smile an nod. The fools. They don't know not to give her encouragement. They'll be trapped now till she tires or death takes 'em.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“His Chosen Ones. What a lie. They're slaves too. You jest cain't see their chains.”
― Moira Young, quote from Raging Star
“Pero siempre entendemos demasiado tarde a los seres que más cerca están de nosotros, y cuando empezamos a aprender este difícil oficio de vivir ya tenemos que morirnos, y sobre todo ya han muerto aquellos en quienes más habría importado aplicar nuestra sabiduría.”
― Ernesto Sabato, quote from On Heroes and Tombs
“I'm proud to be a work in progress.”
― Hannah Hart, quote from Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded
“It is just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, quote from Slaughterhouse-five: The Children's Crusade, A Duty-dance with Death
“How do you...? What is it you're doing?" he said to Vardy as the man took a breath, mid-insight. What do you call that? Billy thought. That reconstitutitive intelligence, berserker meme-splicing, seeing in nothings first patterns, then correspondence, then causality and dissident sense.
Vardy even smiled. "Paranoid," he said. "Theology.”
― China Miéville, quote from Kraken
“The hospital is as busy as it was yesterday. We go in through the main entrance, and people walk in every direction. The people in scrubs and white coats all walk a little bit faster. There’s a guy sleeping on one of the waiting room sofas, and a hugely pregnant woman leaning against the wall by the elevator. She’s swirling a drink in a plastic cup. That baby is giving her T-shirt a run for its money. A toddler is throwing a tantrum somewhere down the hallway. The shrieking echoes.
We move to the bank of elevators, too, and Melonhead isn’t one of those guys who insists on pressing a button that’s already lit. He smiles and says “Good afternoon” to the pregnant woman, but I can’t look away from her swollen belly.
My mother is going to look like that.
My mother is going to have a baby.
My brain still can’t process this.
Suddenly, the woman’s abdomen twitches and shifts. It’s startling, and my eyes flick up to find her face.
She laughs at my expression. “He’s trying to get comfortable.”
The elevator dings, and we all get on. Her stomach keeps moving.
I realize I’m being a freak, but it’s the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t stop staring.
She laughs again, softly, then comes closer. “Here. You can feel it.”
“It’s okay,” I say quickly.
Melonhead chuckles, and I scowl.
“Not too many people get to touch a baby before it’s born,” she says, her voice still teasing. “You don’t want to be one of the chosen few?”
“I’m not used to random women asking me to touch them,” I say.
“This is number five,” she says. “I’m completely over random people touching me. Here.” She takes my wrist and puts my hand right over the twitching.
Her belly is firmer than I expect, and we’re close enough that I can look right down her shirt. I’m torn between wanting to pull my hand back and not wanting to be rude.
Then the baby moves under my hand, something firm pushing right against my fingers. I gasp without meaning to.
“He says hi,” the woman says.
I can’t stop thinking of my mother. I try to imagine her looking like this, and I fail.
I try to imagine her encouraging me to touch the baby, and I fail.
Four months.
The elevator dings.
“Come on, Murph,” says Melonhead.
I look at the pregnant lady. I have no idea what to say. Thanks?
“Be good,” she says, and takes a sip of her drink.
The elevator closes and she’s gone”
― Brigid Kemmerer, quote from Letters to the Lost
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