She recognized that this city was a place that granted you only what you were willing to claim

Alford was going to start this fast the same way he had started everything else, alone and uncertain

All of it was there but nothing had substance. It was as if they were all shadows, as if her leaving had taken the life out of the living things and left them shadows. he himself was a shadow.he felt no weight in his step, ,no sound to his voice, no solidity to his gestures. he forgot time. he felt the ache of a pain whose depth he could not fathom no whose end anticipate

I didn't know where it would lead. I wanted things to develop naturally.

Everybody, he mused had everything worked out. Except me

As a teacher, his task was not to make policy but to follow the policy made by the Department.