Status Updates From El auriga

done for the night - read a little over 100 pages and really enjoyed it! will revisit tomorrow, kicking and screaming. goodnight, fellow readers.

"“Yes. Of course. I’ll let you have it sometime. I’ll try and clean it first, or put on a paper cover or something. It’s really in too filthy a condition to pass around.” Andrew said, his usually clear voice muffled by the position he was
lying in, “You needn’t for me.” Laurie knew that at this point he should not have allowed another silence to begin."

"The lovers of the innocent must protect them above all from the knowledge of their own cruelty. “You know I never want you to go.”"

"The sun slanted deep into the wood, making hidden birds sing softly. The touch of autumn struck from his youth that cosmic sadness, which time will tame like the bite of spring. Under the pale sun, beauty and fate and love and death ached through him. After a while he sighed, and took out his book."

"The blackberries tasted of frost and faint sun and smoke and purple leaves: sweet, childish, and sad."

"One could warm oneself with a good thick hate by shutting all the windows and doors; but he knew, unfortunately, beforehand, that the snugness would not last, and the fug would drive him out into the cold again, gasping for air."

"“I appreciate it, Reg. Don’t worry, I guarantee that if any seducing goes on it’ll be done by me.” He held his breath. Look out you don’t cut yourself, Reg had once said."

"The orchard smelt of September and early dew; the grass in the deep light was now the color of emerald. A blackbird, the last awake, was meditating aloud in a round, sweet whistle. Everything had the colors of farewell."

"As he looked away Andrew turned around. “We can’t go on like this, can we?” “Meaning?” said Laurie. His heart gave a racing start that almost choked him. The sky, the water, the fine leaves through which the late sun was shining, had the supernal brightness which precedes a miracle."

"Now he was here, Laurie could think of nothing to say. Andrew on the other hand seemed to have gained assurance. [...] “You have found
yourself a private Eden, haven’t you?” “It isn’t private,” Laurie said. “Everyone’s invited; but only the serpent comes.” He produced Mrs. Chivers’ tract."

"You have found yourself a private Eden, haven’t you?”

"She smiled at him. It was a special smile, which had been Laurie’s exclusive property ever since he could remember. To see it used, so easily and as if already by habit, upon a stranger, gave him the emotional counterpart of a violent kick in the stomach."

"Even now, as he waited for [his mother] at the outer gate, he dreamed of a land of undefined, tacit understanding, misty at the edges, like an old-fashioned photograph."

"His imagination wrote on: '… to decide I am in love. But he is a clear kind of person, about whom one has to think clearly.' He moved his hand across the letter, as if to brush away the invisible words, and sealed it up."

"The clump of white coats moved sluggishly on, clotting around each
bed like ants around lumps of sugar."

"Rapidly, Laurie caught his eye before he could disengage it, and gave him a deliberately dazzling smile. As he had confidently expected, the young man went crimson, and merged himself deeply in the throng. I do hope, thought Laurie he won’t decide later to write me a little note. But no, I don’t think he puts much in writing. To a nunnery go, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?"

"The trolley beneath him ceased to be palpable. He floated, soared. The
doors of a forgotten home opened to receive him."

"New things were everywhere; it was only the men in the beds who looked shabby and worn."

desperately sleepy so i am abandoning ship here for the eve.

"Lanyon put the pencil away and stood up. He had the whippy, dangerous spring of a bent rapier let go."

"Carter withered; he felt rubbishy, a mess of poorly articulated bones in an unsavory envelope."

"A lullaby sound of distant cricket floated with the dust in the heavy air [...] he was tunelessly, cozily bored."

500 page book "due" on friday... send me luck!

"Just forget about me. You looked so peaceful before I came disturbing you. Now you can get on with your book as if I weren't there."

and laurie gladly takes him up on that offer the rest of the book!