Notteviddia

“Don’t worry. I’m going to give you a balloon, Grandpa. So you can have it in space.”

  “A balloon won’t stop me from disappearing, Noahnoah.” Grandpa sighs.

  “I know. But you’ll get it on your birthday. As a present.”

  “That sounds unnecessary.” Grandpa smiles.

  The boy nods.

  “If you keep hold of it you’ll know that right before you went into space someone gave you a balloon. And it’s the most unnecessary present anyone can get because there’s absolutely no need for a balloon in space. And that’ll make you laugh.”

  Grandpa closes his eyes. Breathes in the boy’s hair.

  “That’s the best present I’ve never been given.”
― Fredrik Backman, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

“It's an awful thing to miss someone who's still here.”
― Fredrik Backman, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

“I'm bad at good-byes," says the boy.
Grandpa's lips reveal all his teeth when he smiles.
"We'll have plenty of chances to practice. You'll be good at it. Almost all grown adults walk around full of regret over a good-bye they wish they'd been able to go back and say better. Our good-bye doesn't have to be like that, you'll be able to keep redoing it until it's perfect. And once it's perfect, that's when your feet will touch the ground and I'll be in space, and there won't be anything to be afraid of.”
― Fredrik Backman, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

“He's not angry at you, he's angry at the universe. He's angry because your enemy isn't something he can fight."

"It's a big universe to be angry with, a never-ending fury.”
― Fredrik Backman, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer