“your mother is the longest magic show you will ever see no one knows how her face is target practice for her partner and a shield for her children how she makes a mouthful of blood disappear erases bruises hardens teeth how she wakes up and dresses her children before dressing her wounds”
“Pudge/Colonel: I am sorry that I have not talked to you before. I am not staying for graduation. I leave for Japan tomorrow morning. For a long time, I was mad at you. The way you cut me out of everything hurt me, and so I kept what I knew to myself. But then even after I wasn t mad anymore, I still didn t say anything, and I don t even really know why. Pudge had that kiss, I guess. And I had this secret. You ve mostly figured this out, but the truth is that I saw her that night, I d stayed up late with Lara and some people, and then I was falling asleep and I heard her crying outside my back window. It was like 3:15 that morning, maybe, amd I walked out there and saw her walking through the soccer field. I tried to talk to her, but she was in a hurry. She told me that her mother was dead eight years that day, and that she always put flowers on her mother s grave on the anniversary but she forgot that year. She was out there looking for flowers, but it was too early-too wintry. That s how I knew about January 10. I still have no idea whether it was suicide. She was so sad, and I didn t know what to say or do. I think she counted on me to be the one person who would always say and do the right things to help her, but I couldn t. I just thought she was looking for flowers. I didn t know she was going to go. She was drunk just trashed drunk, and I really didn t think she would drive or anything. I thought she would just cry herself to sleep and then drive to visit her mom the next day or something. She walked away, and then I heard a car start. I don t know what I was thinking. So I let her go too. And I m sorry. I know you loved her. It was hard not to. Takumi”
“You can t know how much a mother loves.”
“I ll teach you, Tiger Lily offered with a shrug of her shoulders. Did your mother teach you? he asked. I don t have a mother, she said. Like you. For some reason, Peter was glad to hear it.”
“She must love me, to worry about me. She must still be capable of love.”
“remember this: When you cross my doorstep, you have already been raised. With what you have learned...you know the difference between right and wrong. Do right. Don t anybody raise you from the way you have been raised. Know you will have to make adaptations, in love, in relationships, in friends, in society, in work, but don t let anybody change your mind.”