Status Updates From Clam Down: A Metamorphosis

"The clam reflected that her mom was still young, and her capacity for joy was undiminished. She vowed to make her mom's retirement as action-packed as possible. To recoup lost time."

"Inside her mom's mouth was a cave full of patched teeth, plastered and crowned. She always said that after she had her daughters, her teeth began rotting immediately. The calcium was sucked to fortify growing bones. How strange I was once protected in that amnioitic sea, her womb. Remembering her mom back at the saloon, wide-eyed and shuffle-dancing to the honky-tonk jam band, the clam teared up."

"They made a fire and drank hot lemon tea in their mugs. The cold seeped through the wool blankets, but they were happy. Before long, Marie was asleep, cheek jammed sideways on the pillow. The clam followed her breathing, so close she could smell the peppermint toothpase over the sweet beer musk."

"They made a fire and drank hot lemon tea in their mugs. The cold seeped through the wool blankets, but they were happy. Before long, Marie was asleep, cheek jammed sideways on the pillow. The clam followed her breathing, so close she could smell the peppermint toothpase over the sweet beer musk."

"In the cup holder, tucked into a small Ziplog bag and labeled for clarity, the car keys, with a miniature-sized pepper-spray key chain. For wan yi."

"Inventory of items in the daugher's vehicle:

Portable jumping kit
Snow chains
Flashlights
Toolbox
Hat
Two umbrellas
Bungee chords
Emergency flares
Triangle reflector warning kit
Four gallons of drinking water
Tire wrench
Updated insurance information in envelope
Maps
Change for meters, at least USD 20
Rolls of toilet paper
Mason jar crammed with gummy bears"

Implausibly, he was wearing a #YOLO baseball cap she had bought years ago as a joke from the 626 Night Market.
"Oh my God! Dad! Where did you find that thing? Do you know what YOLO means, you only live once. That should be your mantra"
(...)
He chuckled. "Ha ha. Good mantra. You only live once, so be careful."

"All week: The heart squeezed unbearably as she walked down the street, as though crushed from underwater pressure. She had lost a friend, a love, an idea of a possible future. She simply saw him, everywhere."

"The story was beyond her interpretative abilities."

" (...) when humans tried to solve a problem, they usually ended up creating a new, different problem."

"She typed a question into the search bar:How do you know if he likes you?

The results all told her the same thing. If he's into you, you should know right away. You've already lost if your taking these quizzes to help interpret his clues and signs."

"If the love is natural, you don't have to say. In Japan, mothers never say 'I love you.' There is no sentence for that. Maybe you can translate it, but people will think you are crazy. Mothers do all the things from feeding to touch and care. It comes trough actions. That's love. The word 'love' is used in the case when you are not sure if you are loved."

"The first person is something special. In the Middle Ages, in European languages, people spoke not with "I" but "we". The first person is new and modern. Before that, we felt ourselves not as the center of the world, but part of the world."

"She realized that the story [Kafka's Metamorphosis] was also about the mandate of remaining a productive worker, even in the aftermath of catastrophe."

"Yet! It was necessary to keep going. She knew that much."