“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”
“Man, you weigh a freaking ton," he told me. "What've you been eating, rocks?"
"Why, is your head missing some?" I croaked. His mouth almost quirked in a smile, and that's when I knew how upset he'd been”
“Popcorn for breakfast! Why not? It's a grain. It's like, like, grits, but with high self-esteem.”
“Yes!” said Fang, punching the air. “Freaks rule.”
“I feel like, like pudding," Iggy groaned. "Pudding with nerve endings. Pudding in great pain.”
“I took a bite of cookie and chewed. “Hmmm,” I said, trying not to spit crumbs. “Clear vanilla notes, too-sweet chocolate chips, distinct flavor of brown sugar. A decent cookie, not spectacular. Still, a good-hearted cookie, not pretentious.” I turned to Fang. “What say you?”
“It’s fine.”
Some people just don’t have what it takes to appreciate a cookie.”
“Holy [Insert your choice of a swear word here]," said Fang stunned.”
“In the dictionary, next to the word stress, there is a picture of a midsize mutant stuck inside a dog crate, wondering if her destiny is to be killed or to save the world. Okay, not really. But there should be.”
“Dr. Martinez: "I take it you don't want me to call your parent?"
Max: "Uh, no." Hello, lab? May I speak to the test tube please?”
“Max!' Nudge cried, rushing over to hug me. Her thin arms gripped me tight, and I hugged her back, scratching her wings where they joined her shoulders, the way she liked. 'We were so worried—I didn’t know what had happened to you, and we didn’t know what to do, and Fang said we going to eat rats, and—'
'Okay, okay. Everything’s okay,' I told her. I met Fang’s eyes over her shoulder and mouthed rats? silently. A flicker of a grin crossed his lips and then was gone.”
“Gazzy: "What does that mean?" (points to metal plaque warning to stay off the third rail that said Stay off the third rail!)
Fang: "It means the third rail has seven hundred volts of direct current running through it. Touch it and you're human popcorn.”
“I didn't know a van could go up on two wheels like that, for so long." -Nudge”
“Feeding a crowd?' the woman behind the counter asked.
Yes, ma'am ,' Fang said sweetly.
Yeah, him and all his split personalities, I thought.”
“I muttered a swear word to myself. After I heard Angel cussing like a sailor when she stubbed her toe, my new resolution was to watch my language. All I needed was a six-year-old mutant with a potty mouth”
“Why was the blind guy playing with matches, you ask? Because he's good at it. Anything to do with fire, igniting things, exploding things, things with fuses, wicks, accelerants . . . Iggy's your man. It's one of those good/bad things.”
“Nudge: You aren't dead.
Iggy (irritably): No. You aren't dead either. How about just 'hello'?”
“There's nothing more annoying than cold logic and reason when you've got a good fit going. ”
“Can you giggle while racing for your life and protecting a six-year-old? I can.”
“Frustration was my constant companion. I wanted to scream. "What the he-eck are we supposed to do now? I asked Fang.
He looked at me, and I could tell he was mulling over the problem. He held out a small waxed-paper bag.
Peanut?”
“Do we have any chlorine? It seems to be kind of explosive when mixed with other stuff."
"Like what, your socks? No, we don't have chlorine. No swimming pool.”
“Is this a movie?' I heard someone ask.
Naw- this is too original for Hollywood. They do sequels.”
“Jeb: I wish I could explain what I'd give just to see you smile again.
Max (thinking): How about your head on a stick?”
“Fang snorted in disbelief. "On one hand, we have a mythical nice family that wants to adopt me. On the other, we have a gang of insane scientists desperate to do genetic experiments on innocent children. Guess which hand I get dealt?”
“Fang and I searched in every way we could think of and found a million institutes of one kind or another, in Manhattan and throughout New York state, but none of them seemed promising. My favorite? The Institute for Realizing Your Pet's Inner Potential. Anyone who can explain that to me, drop a line.”
“Fang was going to kill me. And after I was dead, he would kill me again.”
“When did they start coming after you?”
“Was it—was it after the oil- slick Hummer crash?” the Gasman asked Iggy tentatively.
My eyes widened. Oil-slick Hummer crash?
Iggy rubbed his chin, thinking.
“Or maybe it was more---after the bomb,” the Gasman said in a low voice, looking down.
“I think it was the bomb,” Iggy agreed. “That definitely seemed to tick them off.”
“Bomb?” I asked incredulously.”
“Jeb: But I need to tell you something first.
Max (thinking): That you are the devil incarnate?”
“The man who alters his way of thinking to suit others is a fool.”
“one of his favorite books was The Runaway Bunny. He especially liked the part about the mother bunny finding her baby wherever he went, no matter how lost he was, or how far away he wandered. Barefoot,”
“What would have happened had he not been killed? He would certainly have had a rocky road to the nomination. The power of the Johnson administration and much of the party establishment was behind Humphrey. Still, the dynamism was behind Kennedy, and he might well have swept the convention. If nominated, he would most probably have beaten the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. Individuals do make a difference to history. A Robert Kennedy presidency would have brought a quick end to American involvement in the Vietnam War. Those thousands of Americans—and many thousands more Vietnamese and Cambodians—who were killed from 1969 to 1973 would have been at home with their families. A Robert Kennedy presidency would have consolidated and extended the achievements of John Kennedy’s New Frontier and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. The liberal tide of the 1960s was still running strong enough in 1969 to affect Nixon’s domestic policies. The Environmental Protection Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act with its CETA employment program were all enacted under Nixon. If that still fast-flowing tide so influenced a conservative administration, what signal opportunities it would have given a reform president! The confidence that both black and white working-class Americans had in Robert Kennedy would have created the possibility of progress toward racial reconciliation. His appeal to the young might have mitigated some of the under-thirty excesses of the time. And of course the election of Robert Kennedy would have delivered the republic from Watergate, with its attendant subversion of the Constitution and destruction of faith in government. RRK”
“The thousands of wealth have fallen with wonders, said Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov. Do you find this unclear? It certainly sounds like the sort of thing thousands of wealth do. They fall. Does anyone know what the rabbi meant by wonders?”
“How about it, Skywalker? Will you still fight for me after we've been married for twenty-odd years?"
"What do you mean by 'still'? You do your own fighting. If I forget that, I'm not likely to survive until our twentieth anniversary."
Mara & Luke”
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