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China Run

Book by David Ball · 7 quotes · Adoption, Babies, Children

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China Run Quotes

“He had never known Allison to act so out of character. He'd often ribbed her for being so predictably straight about everything. They'd never discussed it, but he knew she had never considered running away with Mary rather than turning her over as ordered. Other mothers had run. But not Allison. She had trusted Marshall, trusted the legal system to do the right thing. Even when the system failed her, as awful as it was, she obeyed, because she always obeyed. The judge's decision was the law. In Allison's life that was the order of things. The bizarre thing was that she'd had to travel all the way to China to go insane and test her new wings of defiance.”

FreedomIrony
Book:China Run
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“Tyler was faster than she was and won nearly every game. Between hands he stirred the canh around on the blanket to mix them up. She taught him how to shuffle properly, and he practiced over and over. "How do you play strip poker?" he asked her once. In the cramped space he couldn't see her surprise. "How do you know about that?" "I dunno. I heard it somewhere, I guess. So what is it?" "You play for whatever the other person has," she said. "The winner gets the loser's things." "Like what?" "Oh, odds and ends. Wallets and combs. Things." "Oh." He dealt them each a fish hand. "I heard it was for clothes." She supposed he knew more than he was letting on. He was testing her. "Well, some people play for clothes, too. You play until the other per-son has nothing left." "Why would you want to do that? What would you do with their clothes?" Allison laughed. Sometimes Tyler seemed old for his years, world-wise and as cynical as a grown-up. But then at other times, like now, he just seemed NINE. "I don't know," she said. "It's just a game.”

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Book:China Run
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“I'm not certain. Something to do with special-needs families getting healthy babies." Allison caught her breath at that. It was true, one of the regulations of the Chinese government. She had expected a child with some sort of hand- icap a heart murmur, a hernia, or simply an older child, a toddler- something besides a healthy infant. Under Chinese law adoptive parents had to be at least thirty-five and have no other children in order to qualify for healthy babies. Otherwise they qualified only for the special-needs children. But the rule was loose and so many babies needed adoption that somehow everyone in their group had gotten a healthy infant. Of course, no one questioned it and the issue hadn't arisen during their trip.”

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“Without a family, Ma Lin devoted himself to his work. He continued to shun ideology but occasionally caught himself wondering about the WHY of things he did in his work. Often he felt, and justifiably so, that something he had done had benefited the state or preserved someone's life or safety. Other times, like now, in this room with an old woman who knew nothing important and had curled up to die, he felt old and tired and worn out.”

CountryDutyPrideNationalismProtectionism
Book:China Run
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