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Alice Sebold

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“And there she was, alone and walking out in the cornfield while everyone else I cared for sat together in one room. She would always feel me and think of me. I could see that, but there was no longer anything I could do. Ruth had been a girl haunted and now she would be a woman haunted. First by accident and now by choice. All of it, the story of my life and death, was hers if she chose tot ell it, even to one person at a time.”

IfsThinkingFeelsFirstsPersonsStoriesWould BeTogetherChoicesGirlRoomsWalkingAccidentsSatLife And DeathThink Of MeStory Of My LifeRuthWalking OutTotsElls
Author:Alice Sebold
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“And in a small house five miles away was a man who held my mud-encrusted charm bracelet out to his wife. Look what I found at the old industrial park," he said. "A construction guy said they were bulldozing the whole lot. They're afraid of sink holes like that one that swallowed the cars." His wife poured him some water from the sink as he fingered the tiny bike and the ballet shoe, the flower basket and the thimble. He held out the muddy bracelet as she set down his glass. This little girl's grown up by now," she said. Almost. Not quite. I wish you all a long and happy life.”

MenLooksLittlesLongSaidWholeGuyGirlFoundHouseWishWaterFiveWifeCarFlowerShoesGlassesTinyMilesHolesParksCharmHappy LifeConstructionBalletBikeMudWish YouBasketsMuddyMiles AwayBraceletBallet Shoes
Author:Alice Sebold
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“Ruth hadn't talked to my sister since before my death, and then it was only to excuse herself in the hallway at school. But she'd seen Lindsey walking home with Samuel and seen her smile with him. She watched as my sister said yes to pancakes and no to everything else. She had tried to imagine herself being my sister as she had spent time imagining being me.”

SaidHomeSchoolImagineWalkingExcuseMy SisterBeing MePancakesHallwaysRuthHer SmileWalking Home
Author:Alice Sebold
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“Hold still," my father would say, while I held the ship in the bottle and he burned away the strings he'd raised the mast with and set the clipper ship free on its blue putty sea. And I would wait for him, recognizing the tension of that moment when the world in the bottle depended, solely, on me.”

WorldStillsMomentsFatherWaitingSeaBlueRaisedShipsTensionStringsThat MomentBottlesBurnedRecognizingMastsWait For HimLovely Bones
Book:The Lovely Bones: Picador Classic
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“There was our father, the heart we knew held all of us. Held us heavily and desperately, the doors of his heart opening and closing with the rapidity of stops on an instrument, the quiet felt closures, the ghostly fingering, practice and practice and then, incredibly, sound and melody and warmth.”

HeartFatherFeltSoundPracticeDoorsQuietInstrumentsOpeningMelodyWarmthClosingOur FatherClosureHeart Opening
Book:The Lovely Bones: Picador Classic
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“Once released from life, having lost it in such violence, I couldn’t calculate my steps. I didn’t have time for contemplation. In violence it is the getting out that you concentrate on. When you begin to go over the edge, life receding from you as a boat recedes inevitably from the shore, you hold on to death tightly, like a rope that will transport you, and you swing out on it, hoping to land away from where you are.”

LostStepsViolenceLandEdgesBoatContemplationWhere You AreShoreSwingsRopeTransportOver The Edge
Author:Alice Sebold
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“It was Buckley, as my father and sister joined the group and listened to Grandma Lynn’s countless toasts, who saw me. He saw me standing under the rustic colonial clock and stared. He was drinking champagne. There were strings coming out from all around me, reaching out, waving in the air. Someone passed him a brownie. He held it in his hand but did not eat. He saw my shape and face, which had not changed-the hair still parted down the middle, the chest still flat and hips undeveloped-and wanted to call out my name. It was only a moment, and then I was gone.”

StillsMomentsHandsWantedFacesFatherNamesGoneSawsGroupsAirMiddleChangedHairShapesStandingDrinkingHipsClockReachingFlatsStringsChestsComing OutReach OutGrandmaChampagneToastsBrowniesRusticDrinking Champagne
Author:Alice Sebold
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“She was unaware that she was somewhat of a celebrity up in heaven. I had told people about her, what she did, how she observed moments of silence up and down the city and wrote small individual prayers in her journal, and the story had travelled so quickly that women lined up to know she had found where they’d been killed. She had fans in heaven..... Meanwhile, for us, she was doing important work, work that most people on Earth were too frightened even too contemplate.”

PeopleKnowsImportantMomentsStoriesEarthFoundIndividualHeavenPrayerCitiesSilenceFansFrightenedContemplatingJournalUp And DownImportant WorkMoment Of Silence
Author:Alice Sebold
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“Almost everyone in heaven has someone on Earth they watch, a loved one, a friend or even a stranger who was once kind, who offered warm food or a bright smile when one of us had needed it. And when I wasn’t watching I could hear the others talking to those they loved on Earth: just as fruitlessly as me, I’m afraid. A one-sided card cajoling and coaching of the young, a one way loving and desiring of their mates, a single-sided card that could never get signed.”

WayKindEarthYoungHeavenTalkingWatchesNeededStrangerWarmCardsOne WayCoachingMatesLoved OnesOne SidedBright Smiles
Author:Alice Sebold
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