Choices of Hope
"And so now, here on Little Blue in what was Wisconsin there is a hilltop. The bald bones of it still crowned with thin pines. Its soil a sandy remnant from the bottom of an ancient lake formed by a memory of ice once two miles thick."
Chapter 14:
Shyaklá's Whisper from Away
The story of her journey wants to erupt.
But no words will form. No sound issues.
She touches her throat. My voice.
She reels, the whisper trapped inside her.
Chapter 17: Refugee, Seeker, Seed
“You will find the chest of abominations. Smash the letter into bits. The demon seeds you will destroy. The pod, as they call it, you will bring to me."
Chapter 16:
The Lawrence Enclave of Reason
"The reason we put it here, this traveler from beyond our blue sky, is to remind us that just like the hum of history vibrating in our veins so to is the hum of the universe and what we together send forth is the hum of the future.”
Chapter 19: Proposal
"I know you can’t guarantee it, but it is my prayer in this moment as I sit with you, as I think of him, as I love him for who he is and who he was and who he can be again. You make sure you do your job and he gets back.”
Chapter 23:
Maya's Executive Decision
“This place reminds me of a story I read about, The Cathedral of Chartres. It burned to the ground way back in the day. Lightning. From all over the countryside, people came to rebuild it. Some from hundreds of miles away. Masons. Brick layers. Carpenters. And to this day, nobody knows who built the Cathedral of Chartres.” She smiles, her eyes shy. “I believe that can be us.”
Chapter 21: History Class
"The simple movement of his body rings back the memory clear and clean to him every time. He is seven years old, crouching next to his father in a field of wheat, waist high, golden and bobbing in rhythm with the gusting wind. Its dense, tight smell. The dry soil crumbling between his fingers as they wait. In the distance, under a dark gray sky, the men edge the woods."
Chapter 22: Shyaklá's Prayer
"She pulls her torch loose from the circle of stones. The trio walk back down the trail in bubbles of flickering light. They do not see the shadow emerge from the trees, watching them.
