The Undertaking Of Hart And Mercy Quotes
"It was always a gamble, dropping off a body at Birdsall & Son, Undertakers, but this morning, the Bride of Fortune favored Hart Ralston."
"This was the appalling warmth of an undertaker who welcomed other people’s deaths with open arms."
"Pray for me, Leonard," he said before he pinged the counter bell."
"Salt fucking Sea, how does your owner manage to stay in business?"
"It’s not so much an implication as a stone-cold statement of fact."
"I wish I could tell you what your letter means to me."
"You must be a pathetically friendless loser to be this much of a jerk."
"I’m not going to dignify that with a response. I’ll meet you at the dock."
"Everyone else is cutting a rug, completely unaware that I’m there. Or worse, they don’t want to dance with me. And I’m a pretty good dancer, let me tell you."
"This is your typical cut-and-run operation."
"Thanks for rolling out the red carpet, Merciless."
"It’s so much easier to do by letter than face-to-face, and the more I get acquainted with you, the more I want to know."
"Because if a drudge were to get loose, the quickest way for the sheriff’s deputies to find it and get rid of it is by tracking down the only thing that’s moving."
"I already like this new companion of yours. There’s nothing like youth to snap you out of a funk."
"Could you be fully open and honest with me if you discovered that I was a hag with stringy hair and objectionable political views?"
"My mother got up with the sun every morning and worked her fingers to the bone until sundown, but she always made time to sip her tea and read a chapter from a book before facing the day."
"How does a person go about living beyond getting up, going to work, and sleeping?"
"I’m writing to you tonight under a starry sky. When you live in the middle of nowhere, you can see the stars—all of them—without town lights getting in the way."
"It made me think about how I want people to remember me when I’m gone, for however briefly I’m remembered."
"Mercy matched Zeddie’s quivering posture of outrage. 'Where’s my head? My head is right here on top of my neck, thinking that there’s at least one person in this world who cares about who I am and what I want.'"
"A door is closing, and I’m not sure how to find a new beginning once it does."
"‘I need you to look through the window and find a woman dressed in yellow.’"
"She reached into her purse, pulled out a book, and pretended to read."
"He wanted to feel something—anything—other than the despondency that had taken hold of him and refused to let go."
"He had come here to escape from Mercy, but as the week trickled by... he wound up slamming into his memory of Bill and all the remorse that came with it."
"By Wisdomsday, he itched to go… home? But he had no home."
"The words 'To: A Friend' were written on the front of the envelope as they always were, in the same graceful handwriting he had come to cherish."
"His whole life was like this letter, a series of goodbyes that never happened, a line from his past to his present that he could draw in his mind with a thick-nibbed pen from his mother to Bill to Gracie to Mercy."
"He didn’t need a vacation. He needed to put the past behind him once and for all."
"He rode south to Sector W-43, worried that he wouldn’t be able to find Gracie’s grave after more than four years, but as it turned out, he could never forget where he’d buried her."
"I have faith that our friendship can exist beyond these letters, despite all the faults and weaknesses of our flesh-and-blood selves, which is why I want to meet you, to know you better."
"She simply hadn’t seen him. And had he really seen her? For years, he had convinced himself that she was fake, that no one who worked with the dead for a living could be so alive and contented—that no one in general could put that much life and joy into the world."
"I miss you. He missed her. He missed Mercy Birdsall, who had somehow, miraculously, become his friend."
"Don’t you step foot in this place again. If you’ve got a body to deliver, you send Pen to do it. Do you understand?"
"I demand to have full and complete access to my Nuzzle Nook at all times."
"I saw my mom’s leave her body, too. How’s that for an amazing demigod talent?"
"But why?" Hart eased her brow’s furrow of confusion with a gentle fingertip and traced the lines of her face, so beautiful in the dim gaslight of her parlor.
"You have to wait until the doc discharges you, but yeah. Because, as you pointed out, you were shot."
"Maybe I changed my mind," she told her sister.
"Good to know." Roy recapped the bottle, shoved it back in the drawer, and took a deep gulp.
"I thought Hart Ralston was persona non grata in Mercyland," Lilian said.
"If I’m not willing to swallow my pride and come after her, he didn’t deserve her."
"It’s like patching a tire, McDouchebag, except the mechanic is the one leaving nails on the street and then profiting off the repair."
"I wish you a happy life, surrounded by the people you love and who love you in return."
"I’m sure he’s lost and miserable without you."
"You might not see Bill this go-around. He’s holding on to a lot of guilt when it comes to you, worried that you’re not going to forgive him, when obviously, you forgave him long ago, if you ever blamed him to begin with. Give him time. He’ll come around."
"I thought he didn’t tell you about the letters because he was scared he’d lose you if you found out."
"I am not a good man, as you well know, but at least I can tell you with absolute certainty that I am a better man for having known you."
"You’re a good shot, Marshal. Don’t panic. Take aim and fire. That’s all you have to do."
"It was one of those fucked-up-too-much-for-apologies kind of fuckups."
"As soon as she returned to his mind, he latched on and refused to let go. It’d be like reading a book that doesn’t end, she told him in his mind. No matter how good the story is, you want it to be over at some point."
"I will never understand why mortals treat dying like it’s the stroke of an axe rather than the slow steaming away of water in a pot."
"Everyone crosses the threshold, right? So I’ve always found it bizarre that mortals are unpleasantly shocked when they find themselves either dead or on their way home."
"It made me wonder, what’s so great about living that you wouldn’t want to die?"
"I love you, Mercy. Was that up for debate?"
"If you ever let me go again, I will strangle you."
"You should be sorry that you couldn’t push past what I said in anger and come talk to me."