☕️ Inês

“Tirando a fantasia que nos arranca à escuridão parada dos dias sucedendo-se indistintamente, o que vale o tempo que nos foi dado ou que viemos procurar?”
― Isabela Figueiredo, A Gorda

“Jeong-dae, who nonchalantly slid the blackboard cleaner into his book bag.
‘What’re you taking that for?’
‘To give to my sister.’
‘What’s she going to do with it?’
‘Well, she keeps talking about it. It’s her main memory of middle school.’
‘A blackboard cleaner? Must have been a pretty boring time.’
‘No, it’s just there was a story connected with it. It was April Fool’s Day, and the kids in her class covered the entire blackboard with writing, for a prank - you know, because the teacher would have to spend ages getting it all off before he could start the lesson. But when he came in and saw it he just yelled, “Who’s classroom monitor this week?” - and it was my sister. The rest of the class carried on with the lesson while she stood out in the corridor, dangling the cloth out of the window and beating it with a stick to bash the chalk dust out. It is funnv, though, isn’t it? Two years at middle school, and that’s what she remembers most.”
― Han Kang, Human Acts

“Quando aqueles que amamos se vão embora sentimos que ninguém nos espera e que já não há por quem esperar. Há uma voz estúpida dentro de nós que acredita que alguém nos telefonará de algures, nos dirá que tem saudades, que nos ama e precisa de nós. Que importamos ainda, que tudo pode acontecer no tempo que nos resta. Digo estúpida porque o nosso tempo acabou. Estamos só. Digo estúpida porque tudo morre quando os que amamos se vão embora. O coração vazio é uma casa em ruínas. Uma casa que morre.”
― Isabela Figueiredo, Um Cão no Meio do Caminho

“Because I am enough. My heart is enough. The stories and the sentences twisting around my mind are enough. I am fizzing and frothing and buzzing and exploding. I'm bubbling over and burning up. My early-morning walks and my late-night baths are enough. My loud laugh at the pub is enough. My piercing whistle, my singing in the shower, my double-jointed toes are enough. I am a just-pulled pint with a good, frothy head on it. I am my own universe; a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm-up act, the main event, and the backing singers. And if this is it, if this is all there is- just me and the trees and the sky and the seas- I know now that that's enough.”
― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love