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77 pages, Paperback
First published September 7, 2021
“I should’ve answered your letter. Some things that happened to me were wonderful, and some parts were only good because they passed. When things were bad, I kept thinking better was just around the corner, and by the time I had the energy to raise my head and take a look at my life, years and years had passed. Forgive me. I didn’t want to admit to myself this was all I had to tell you, this life of mine. At the time, it didn’t seem enough, not what I expected, not what I had ordered, not what I wanted to share. Do you understand?”
“Never? Not once?
Ay, Puffina, it’s what religion is supposed to be. Like when the sun shines through the church window’s prettiest colored glass and you know God isn’t inside that building, he’s inside you.
…
And it’s as if your body isn’t an anchor or an iron bell anymore, it’s only your spirit, wide as a sky, as if a thousand sparrows opened their wings inside your heart, and oh, it’s lovely, lovely, Puffina. As if you’ll never feel alone again.”
“Sometimes I think of you at odd moments, Marta. When I’m teaching the youngest how to brush her own hair or painting my toes on the back porch and painting my girls’ toes, too. I suspect it must be that way for you, too. Which is when we both must be thinking of the other, tugging and yanking like the tides.”