patry’s Reviews > Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil > Status Update

"She digs her phone out of her pocket, taps over to Catty’s voice note as she walks, holding on to her sister’s voice as if it is a rope."

“There were three years between Alice and Catty Moore.
Three years that become two and then one and then somehow, Alice is seventeen and a half, older than Catty ever was. She spent those three years being exactly the daughter that she’s supposed to be, the kind that doesn’t fight, or scream, or run”

"She closes her eyes and spreads her arms and waits, as the rain soaks through shirt and skin and down to bone—
Waits, as it batters her open hands—
And she can pretend—
To feel her sister’s fingers closing around hers."

"Seconds that meant nothing because by that point, Catty was already dead.
It was fast, the man on the phone assures her father, and all Alice can see is Catty sprinting down the road ahead of her.
Slow down.
Come back."

“cause her mind only goes one place when left alone, and already she can feel the past dragging its feet, looking back over its shoulder, and here’s the thing, it might surprise you, but Alice doesn’t want to think of Catty.
She doesn’t want to, but she can’t help it—
It’s the rope that keeps her from escaping—
The rope that hauls her back again.”

"Time doesn’t heal.
It just wears you down.
Tricks you into thinking, as the present slips into the past, that it will stay there.
Safely buried in your wake."

“Why does Charlotte stay?
That is like asking—why stay inside a house on fire?
Easy to say when you are standing on the street, a safe distance from the flames.
Harder when you are still inside, convinced you can douse the blaze before it spreads, or rushing room to room, trying to save what you love before it burns.”

“A hundred years, apart, alone, with no one but Sabine.
A hundred years without another confidante, or friend.
A hundred years of waiting, wanting, and then at last, they were right there. She was so close. She could have caught the woman’s hand. Could have heard the man’s voice. Could have asked if there were others.”

"But it is their anniversary, and Sabine’s mood is high, her eyes alight with happiness, and so Charlotte only smiles, grateful that she’s spent the last few years learning to put up walls around her mind, to shield the thoughts that are not safe to share"

"It is easy, isn’t it, in retrospect?
To spot the cracks. To see them spread.
But in the moment, there is only the urge to mend each one.
To smooth the lines.
And keep the surface whole."