The Missing Sister Quotes
"Life is so rarely what we expect, dear sister. I feel like our generation has been told by everyone—our parents, our grandparents, by society—to settle. Settle for whatever you can grab on to, and don’t let go once it’s yours. No, no, no! Our generation has to do better, to choose more, to settle for more—when the world is offering less."
"Being so far from you does feel weird, though. You never said it, but I’m well aware it’s the first time you and I have been more than one hundred miles apart."
"Science is at its limit until it surpasses itself. The earth is flat until it is not, gravity pulls greater on a fat man until it does not, and there are only sixty elements in the periodic table until there are not."
"If ever you feel like talking, dear sister, just close your eyes and reach out for me—emotionally, mentally, spiritually extend to me, and I will be there."
"The catacombs are five stories deep and eleven thousand square meters in surface area. There are six million Parisians buried below, spanning seven centuries and two hundred miles."
"Past the ticket kiosk and inside its slim corridor, framed illustrations tell the history of rock quarries turned catacombs."
"From mining pits that evolved into structured tunnels, the Black Plague turned the underground matrix into mass graves."
"The thin fabric of my hoodie provides all the insulation of tissue paper."
"Panic claws at my chest, as if it were a literal zombie risen from its marshy tomb below."
"It is a labyrinth. Full of secrets and surprises around every corner."
"The normalcy of it unlocks something in my brain."
"The echo of an argument I almost made, a would-be hidden fact I read in Angela’s work last night."
"To not seeking happiness in others’ opinions. To finding stability from within."
"I needed to come down here. To gain some insight into my sister’s world."
"The mysterious number fifty-eight? Just a restaurant she probably visited with Seb."
"It is a hot poker shoved into my eye, the thought of leaving you to manage the grisly details of their service alone."
"For better or worse, ever since I pretended to be you for the eighth-grade presentations that rocketed you to the best science classes, you have always been Mom and Dad’s favorite."
"Think of someone other than yourself, Shayna Astrid. Otherwise, I don’t know how we can continue."
"The sun dips on its downward trajectory now in late afternoon, and shadows climb the opposite stone walls like in a Charlton Heston film."
"Finally having an outline of a plan is a relief after the last several days of bumbling about wearing my sister’s face."
"The chaos of hundreds of students running to safety made the aftermath hard to track."
"I wish I had done more of that growing up—held my boundaries and waited them all out."
"I was just following your exact suggestion to retrace Angela’s steps today."
"I hope that we can continue to work together. For Angela’s sake."
"I have no phone. I’m in Paris. With no phone."
"I muttered plenty of curse words against them each time I felt the knee-jerk reaction to check the time/texts/emails."
"I was never entirely sure of Angela’s reasons, but I couldn’t take it anymore."
"I thought you might not, after your last visit."
"Academic Angela. Reclusive Angela. Sexually deviant Angela."