He had protected me from the world so completely that I had no idea what the world was capable of.

I knew how to stand by and watch her take care of herself, but that was not the same thing as taking care of her.

I could never help but think that had they met on their own, two women who had nothing to do with me, they would have liked each other very much;

I always imagined the house would die without us. I don’t know, I thought it would crumple up. Do houses ever die of grief?”

“A house looks different when you own it. I never knew that before. It looks better. No one’s ever going to get me out of here now. I’m going to be like old Mrs. VanHoebeek. I’m going out feet first.”

Even the oldest angers could be displaced.

“Men leave their children all the time and the world celebrates them for it. The Buddha left and Odysseus left and no one gave a shit about their sons. They set out on their noble journeys to do whatever the hell they wanted to do and thousands of years later we’re still singing about it.

Our father never took Maeve to collect the rent, even though she was seven years older than me and had won the math prize in school every year and would have been so much better with the ledger it was ridiculous.

“You have to serve those who need to be served, not just the ones who make you feel good about yourself.