FERN

“Nick nodded. "My mother said that always surprised her-all the houses made out of wood here, especially in the suburbs. She said growing up in the Soviet Union, it was all concrete and cinder blocks where she lived. Wooden houses were for old Russian fairy tales."
Sawyer reflected, mulling. "Have you ever wanted to go there?"
"Sure. But growing up, I was always told that's was impossible," he said. "At least for me and my mom, given her political history. But it's strange; there were times when I was super aware that she could never bring me back to where she was from, but other times I felt so completely that I have been there in my mind, I forget that I haven't, even now."
"Do you speak Russian?"
"Of course. My mom's English is perfectly fine, but we always wind up speaking in Russian together."
"Do you ever...dream in Russian?"
"I do.”
― Suzanne Rindell, Summer Fridays

“With the slushy gripped in one hand, Sawyer held the hot dog in the other and leaned her head sideways to take a bite. She hadn't had a hot dog in years, perhaps not since the days of running through sprinklers. She was surprised by how it all came back to her instantly-the softness of the bun, the saltiness of the meat, the tang of the mustard.
"It tastes like summer," she said, attempting to lick a stray dollop of mustard from the corner of her mouth.
Nick smiled. "It's almost like you're a poet or something.”
― Suzanne Rindell, Summer Fridays

“Why, asked the actors onstage, had their friend killed himself? And why not? asked the others who argued with them. It was his Self to keep or destroy. Why should customs or, God forbid, laws interfere with the ways we dispose of our Selves.
Because we're none of us alone in this world. We injure each other.
Why should another be injured by choices I make for my Self?
You're choosing for another when you make choices. We overlap. We get tangled. You can't help but hurt.
That's a load of BS! Anyone tangled with me got that way by a choice of their own. If I shoot myself, they had fair warning.
What warned them?
The plain knowledge that I wasn't them.”
― Susan Choi, Trust Exercise

“He says, “I’m going to take a stand,” and the world remains silent.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys