“The frosted window, above my kitchen sink, wasn’t open so I couldn’t make out the words, only what sounded like the noise of squabbling blue jays.”

“I understood that a crying man was not a gay man, and Stainless and I were not friends.”

“Every day is an offering, and I am giving bits of myself to you. I am overcome with a sudden grief.”

“Hope and momentum propelled us through recessions and housing crises, through breakups, deaths, wars, and other losses.”

“She didn’t want to commiserate. She wanted me not to have seen, not to know what it is like to move through the world embodying that particular target.”

“That’s how oracle cards work, she told me, they guide you where you need to go. I don’t believe in anything, but I’d like to.”