‘How long will you be staying?’ asked the man behind the black marble counter.
Auckland, 2009. Souls and memories can do strange things during trance. Dr Seward’s Diary Dracula, Chapter XXV.
After the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered New York City, where we lived most of the year, we decided to quarantine on Martha’s Vineyard with our two youngest children, then fifteen and twelve.
Aria Love woke to the sound of Junghee’s cheerful humming and the rustle of fabric.
The children of Orlfen used to swap stories about what might happen if the Prince of Rostenburg ever returned.
I kiss my wife on the lips. Her breath smells of last night’s toothpaste mixed with sleep.
‘Better go on the uphill side of those boulders.’ Ben Coles’ father pointed. ‘Safest way.’
When he’s fifteen, he and his mother move to a new town and he starts at a new school. It’s not an easy age to do that – the social order of the school is already well established and he has some difficulty making friends.
I almost expected to see my doppelgänger sprinting across town pursued by a mob, but I guess things didn’t work that way. — RANSOM RIGGS, MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
On the way to Averley, Martha was aware of the distance between her and her mother.
