Thudark’s Reviews > The Night Watch > Status Update

“They settled back into an embrace - as if it were nothing, as if it were easy; as if they weren’t two boys, in a prison, in a city being blown and shot to bits; as if it were the most natural thing in the world.”

„She had often longed, in fact, for her jealousy to take some physical form; she‘d sometimes thought, in moments like this, I‘ll burn myself or I‘ll cut myself. For a burn or a cut might be shown, might be nursed, might scar or heal, would be a miserable kind of emblem; would anyway be there, on the surface of her body, rather than corroding it from within.“

„‚Happiness is such a fragile sort of thing these days. It‘s as if there’s only so much to go round.‘
‚As if it’s on the ration.‘
‚Yes, exactly! And so you know, when you’ve got some, that it‘s going to run out soon; and that keeps you from enjoying it, you’re too busy wondering how you’re going to feel when it‘s all gone‘“

„‚Do you understand me? It seemed like someone else‘s life not mine. It was just as though I‘d been plucked right out of time, then dropped back in it, and had to take up where I left off!‘

‚It wasn’t like that, for me. When I came out, everything was different. Everything was changed. I‘d always known it would be, and it was. People said, „You’ll do all right.“ But I knew I never would.‘“

“And then it seemed to her that she really might be a ghost, that she might be becoming part of the faded fabric of the house, dissolving into the gloom which gathered, like dust, in its crazy angles.“