Tolkien InMySleep

“But if his speed was a gift of God, his control was the curse of Satan, for Steve Dalkowsky was wilder than a northeast gale. His fastball would explode in the stands - a hundred feet off target - and knock batters out of the on-deck circle. Batboys cowered in the dugout. He gave up more bases on balls in a single season than anyone in the history of the California League, and once in Stockton threw six wild pitches in a row. In Aberdeen one night he struck out seventeen and walked sixteen.
"Hey, Dalkowsky, you pitchin' tonight?" a fan yelled after three warm-up pitches missed the screen behind home plate and splintered box seats. Dalkowsky mumbled yes and the fan shouted back, "Then I'm getting the hell out of here, and I'm taking my kids with me.”
― David Lamb, Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball's Minor Leagues

“And kids, they're very instinctual, they're very primitive, in a lot of ways. And they can smell difference on you.”
― Eliza Clark, Penance

“I don't want you to fall behind."
"I won't," she declared intensely, promising herself that she would repay his confidence in her by having a brilliant career. A great writer, an actress, an ambassador's gifted wife. Perhaps he would like it best if she were to study for the bar. But no, that was out of the question; women lawyers wore flat-heeled shoes.”
― Mary McCarthy, The Company She Keeps

“Still cool out by the cabin when I reached it, early-morning sunlight skipping bright coins across the lake.”
― James Sallis, Cripple Creek