Krystle > Recent Status Updates

428 “Think of someone you’ve lost.
You think you would trade anything to hear their voice again, or to see their smile. To hold them, or be held by them, just one more time.
You would be right.”

428 “In the field of emergency preparedness, the reason we celebrate survivors is not because of the one tragic day they persevered, but because of all the ordinary days that they still have to come. How you died defines you for a moment. How you lived… well, that defines you forever.”

427-428 “It’s to preserve the moments in between. To make sure people have the space & the safety to be intentional, so those days aren’t wasted. I think of the weeks I pushed Georgia away because I was so angry when she first returned. Well, I will never get that time back.”

427 “Here’s my dirty little secret: I could be the best chief of Emergency Preparedness in the country—in the world—but tragedies will still happen. Floods rise. Planes crash. People die. Nothing I do, nothing, can ever stop catastrophes from coming. But that’s not why I do it.”

424 “Gotta go,” Gavin mutters. “Sorry, man. Some asshole ran a red light, hit a pedestrian, & crashed into a Jersey barrier.” … But before I can finish typing, the phone begins to ring. Molly’s profile picture glows on the screen. “Jesse.” Molly’s voice is wet, hitched, incoherent. “They’re taking her to the hospital.” “My mother.”

421 Georgia went walking on her own for some fresh air. After she was done, Molly texted Georgia that she & Adie are at a Starbucks near the hotel. “Across the street, Molly stands up & waves. I wave back. The Walk signal turns, & I take that first step, momentarily blinded by the sun, or maybe by my future.”

407 “I draw myself up from the love seat. “Goodbye, Evie,” I say, walking toward the front door. Her voice stops me. “He loved me, you know.” It was what she had always wanted, & even if it wasn’t intentional or deliberate, it was what she had finally gotten. I do not look back as I reach the front door of a house that might have once been mine, & I firmly close that door behind me.”

406-407 Evie is packing when Georgia shows up @ the house. “We [Adam & Evie] agreed that I’d move out by the weekend.”
G: “Where are you going to go?”
E: “Who knows. It’s not like I’ve ever had a family whose arms I could go running back to, is it?” … “You know, I thought of you like a sister.”
Sisters before misters.
“You lied first, Eloise. You & me against the world? Bullshit.”

400-401 Jesse confronts Evie, getting her to admit that Eloise didn’t actually try to drown Molly when she was a baby. He figured it out after Adam had reminded Jesse that he showered at the airport lounge on the morning of 9/11 because Adam’s master bath water was turned off & the other bathroom w/ the mosaic was too small to shower in by preference.

405 “I think we all evolve over the course of our lives. We are a child, an adult, a parent. We painstakingly remake ourselves from students into professionals. We accumulate labels: daughter, wife, widow, orphan. We become mirrors for some people, & magnets for others. We get polished & sanded by our encounters w/ the world. Nobody leaves this life the same way they started.”

354 “Georgia,” she says, “would you like to hold Adie?” Knowing they named the baby after my sister— it feels like a peace offering I didn’t earn. Sometimes we lose the people we love. And sometimes we find ways to keep them with us.”

353 “I’ve always thought it a strange phrase: delivering hey baby. It sounds so gentle, like passing along a message. In reality, birth is a battle zone, bloody and brutal, where a brand-new human is dragged literally screaming from safety into the unknown.“

303 “As we make our way there, I think of how joy evolves w/ time. When you are younger, it is the result of something that happens to you. When you are older, it is the result of something that happens to someone you love.”

300-301 Eloise (Georgia Gilligan) said no to Kai when he proposed to her. When they got back from their New Mexico trip, they slowly parted ways.

298 “Do you know why we celebrate a baby’s first laugh? Because you aren’t born with Joy. You have to be taught it.” I think about this, hoping Adam taught Molly joy. “You know, even when they’re not with you, you’re still a mother,” Florence adds.”

173 “—until its wings beat like a second heart, and it rose into the sky. “They have hollow bones,” Mama explained. “It’s what makes birds so fragile. But it’s also what makes it possible to fly.”

173 “When I was about five, a robin built a nest outside my bedroom window.” “One day, as I watched at my windowsill, the mama bird shoved one of the babies out of the nest. As a bird plummeted, I screamed m, & my mother came running. “No, it’s okay. Just watch.” She pointed to the 2nd baby, which was now on the lip of the nest. The mama robin gave it a nudge, & it started to torpedo—“

122 “He raises a brow. “Can you even hit inside the shower anymore to install it?” “Yeah. I just may need the Jaws of Life to get me out.” I smooth my fingers over the baby bird’s beak. “I’m going to call it Hollow Bones.” Adam blinks in surprise. “That’s kind of grim,” he says. Here is the other thing I love about mosaics: they take broken things and make them beautiful.

95 Dr. Mantillard confirms they’re having a baby girl!

92-93 “I’m going to hop in the shower.” Ten minutes later I’m ready to go. I opened the front door of the condo to find Toby, Miguel, and the rest of my entire Emergency Preparedness team standing there, holding balloons that say CONGRATULATIONS and WELCOME BABY, a haul of gifts, and what looks like a platter of bagels and lox.”

92-93 Molly’s team & Jesse throw her a surprise baby shower. “Molly,” Toby says. “ Normally I would never call you on your day off, but a stretch of I-95 washed out because of the storm, & a truck collided with a tractor trailer.” “Casualties?” “ no, but that’s not the problem. The truck was transporting 12 lab monkeys, infected with Covid, herpes, and hep C, & they escaped.”

87 Molly talking to sis-in-law, Kate. “That’s all motherhood is, you know. Knowing you’d trade your life for someone, if it meant they’d still be here.” She looks up at me. “I understand my mother and her motivations a lot better now that I have a kid.”

81 At the OBGYN’s office talking to receptionist, Georgia, after finding out Molly has to do a blood draw to screen for any abnormalities. “ Can I let you in on a secret? There is no perfect baby. And there is no perfect parent. You’re going to love that baby despite all her flaws. And if you’re lucky, she’ll love you despite all of yours.”

51 Molly’s pregnant!! “Jesse folds his arms around me. “My mom used to say that’s the dirty little secret of parenting. No one knows how to do it, much less do it well.””

48-50 Molly is a badass proving a point to doctor of musicology, Dr. Griswald (she replaced the longtime physician who was the head of the CDC‘s Division of State and Local Readiness), that the notification protocol—using a multi-dept APB for every drill & incident—isn’t the “best tool for our real-world experience.”

32-37 Molly & Jesse’s first date was at the police station. They had deli sandwiches & coke. But there was also a polygraph that Jesse hooked up Molly to.
36 “Jesse moved behind me, his words falling onto the map of my neck. “Are you attracted to me, Molly?” I swallowed. “No,” I said. His lips skated over my temple. “Do you dream about me at night, like I dream about you?”

30 Thirteen Morgan Stanley, employees, including Rick and four of his security staff—died when the building collapsed at 9:59, but 2,687 employees and 250 visitors to the bank lived, because Rick Rescorla had a plan.