The frown on his face was not his lawyer s frown, but Carter s frown, the one he wore when he cared and when caring made him ache. When pain first strikes, the body and the soul do not ache in the same way. The body screams, surrenders, begs for injections to kill the agony. The soul anesthetizes itself, turns itself numb, deceives itself into believing there is no pain. The soul becomes dazed.
Magic things are fond of deceptions.
I have a new passion, my darlings, a passion for being myself. Stirring and sloshing, rinsing and wiping, pouring and garnishing, with a fry cook's retention and an acrobat's timing, he virtually dances through his shift, skating, as it were, on the chunky ice he scoops with furious delicacy into each glass. The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being. Every daydream that involves the past sports in its hatband a ticket to the grave. The gods do not limit men.