Ann Patchett

Mothers were the measure of safety,

But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we’re not seeing it as the people we were, we’re seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered.”

Archimedes’ Principle states that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid at rest is acted upon by an upward force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body.

“Privacy,” I said, though at eight I had no notion of privacy. I liked the word, and I liked the boxed-in feel the draperies gave when they were closed.

“ ‘All the world’s a stage,’ ”

Live forever, I say to myself.

Imagine braiding the tails of three mice and then throwing in a cat.

I thought dating meant when I was their age: ice cream, movies, walking home from school, the dread and desire that surrounded the mystery of kissing.

I’ve made a point never to think of him at all, except that now I am thinking of him.

And so I would hold her. You don’t forget that, even if your daughters have grown and been gone for years and then come home.