Joy

“How strange can the body be. I do not know it, never know what it wants. Does anyone know their body, truly? I wonder.”
― Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep

“Who are you?' She said, 'Have you always been like this? Have you just been waiting to happen?”
― Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep

“What was joy, anyway. What was the worth of happiness that left behind a crater thrice the size of its impact. What did people who spoke of joy know of what it meant, to sleep and dream only of the whistle of planes and knocks at the door and on windows and to wake with a hand at one's throat— one's own hand, at one's own throat. What did they know of not speaking for days, of not having known the touch of another, never having known, of want and of not having felt the press of skin to one's own, and what did they know of a house that only ever emptied out. Of animals dying and fathers dying and mothers dying and finding bullet holes in the barks of trees right below hearts carved around names of people who weren't there and the bloody lip of a sibling and what did what did she know— of what could she possibly know of what it—”
― Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep

“If you are mine then I am yours. Do you understand? If I stay, if I'm yours then you must keep me, and I can never-”
― Yael van der Wouden, The Safekeep