Fly Away Quotes
"She’s been my best friend since eighth grade."
"You need to take care of her ... after."
"I can’t take off from school. I have to keep my grades up for college."
"I need to go to Sacred Heart. There’s been an accident."
"You were the one for me, John Ryan. I loved you with every breath I took for two decades."
"You do realize you’re standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at a penis, and crying, right?"
"The twins come up on either side of us, jubilant in their excitement, amped up on the idea of adventure."
"It is us… we two… alone in the dark, waiting, knowing… love is our salvation and our demise… no one sees us save each other."
"My show, The Girlfriend Hour, was number one in its time slot last year."
"You only ever think about yourself, Tully."
"Memories are who we are, Tul. In the end, that’s all the luggage you take with you. Love and memories are what last."
"What are you doing in a place like this?"
"But I can’t listen to any more. I pull my goddaughter into a fierce, desperate hug so tight she struggles to break free."
"It’s all changed, and I hate it. Especially on days like today."
"Tully was the only one who never lied and told her it would get better."
"She wanted to disappear. And she knew how to do it now. Make no waves."
"As long as she did what was expected of her—did her homework, applied to colleges, and pretended to have friends—no one really looked at her."
"That was one of the truths Marah had learned: no one knew you as well as your mom."
"I know someone who can help her," Tully said.
"I guess fish are supposed to be calming," Tully said.
"Sometimes missing her hurts more than I can stand, too."
"I cut myself," Marah said quietly. It felt surprisingly good to admit.
"I don’t want to talk about her," Marah said evenly.
"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed," he said with a negligent shrug.
"I’m not going to back down this time, Johnny Ryan."
"I’m sorry about what happened in December."
"I need help," she says at the bottom of the stairs, and lifts her arm. She is bleeding profusely.
"I’ll be with you every step of the way," I promise.
"Who says I need help? ‘All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.’"
"Marah is fragile, Tully. Our sessions are private."
"I have a teen grief support group that might help her. It meets on Wednesdays. Seven P.M."
"My advice to you and to her father would be to treat her as such."
"I remember the first time I got drunk. I was with your mom, of course."
"It’s true that I am not my best self these days, that panic often crouches in my peripheral vision."
"There’s a river of sadness in me; it’s always been there, but now it is rising, spilling over its banks."
"I’m glad you’re just friends. Keep it that way, okay? You’re not ready for anything more."
"It’s not that I no longer care—I still care deeply."
"You’re like the Lady of Shalott, Tully, watching the world from the safety of your high-rise tower."
"I almost start to cry at how much this means to me. I really am a mess."
"We were Ukrainian. Did you know that? No, of course you didn’t. I never told you anything about my life or your heritage."
"I wanted to break the rules. Anything for him."
"I loved Rafe; not in the breathless schoolgirl way of our first meeting, but thoroughly, utterly."
"I remember always being tired and broke and dusty and lonely."
"I was drained. That’s the best way I can put it."
"I clung to my memories in the dark, fingering them like a rosary."
"We’ve told everyone she’s our niece. They know we went to court to get custody, so don’t say anything."
"You’ve always wanted to know my story. So here goes."
"The day you were born—in a tent in a field in Salinas, by the way—I felt empowered and overwhelmed by love."
"I wanted to be a bad girl, suddenly. The good-girl thing had been such a disaster."
"If I screwed up again, they might find a way to make sure I never gave them trouble again."
"All I could think about was saving you from that terrible house where he lived."
"My parents lived in the shadow of this weird new thing called a Space Needle."
"I felt a pale gray coldness descend around me; it cut me off, separated me."
"I wanted to hate who I’d become—a murderer—but I couldn’t feel anything but happy about his death."
"Rafe. His name became everything—my religion, my mantra, my destination."
"Once I smoked my first joint, I couldn’t stop."
"Vietnam. I couldn’t imagine him going there, my Rafe, with his long hair and flashing smile and tender hands."
"The next day, when I went to the protest rally that had brought me to Los Angeles, I was still crying."
"I carried you into the emergency room and said you’d gotten into the neighbor’s stash."
"I don’t know, Dot. That’s, like, way too much weed for a kid."
"We moved back to Bainbridge for you, Marah. I’ve kept the light on every night since you left."
"She’s going to wake up and yell at me. Please."
"You sign them all your daughter, Tully. Did you wonder if I even knew who you were?"
"I’ll keep reading," Dorothy said, sitting down again, turning the page.
"Sorry. It is so small. Just five letters and I was never strong enough to say it."
"No more secrets," she said—whispered, really.
"I promised Mom something and I have to keep that promise," she said.
"Remember how I loved you, every single bit of you."
"I won’t dare to ask for your forgiveness, Dorothy Jean. But I am sorry."
"That was just you being you and me being me."
"It’s true, all that going-into-the-light/your-life-flashing-before-your-eyes stuff."
"She’s with us, Marah. She will always be watching over you and loving you."
"I always loved you, Tully. It was my own life I was running from."