Katie soon learned there was a problem with hope.

“Shush – it’s silent time again.”

— Carla H Krueger

“He had become the sky around the sun – alive, but not really there.”

— Carla H Krueger

“The breeze around them seemed to drop – dead – like a door to the best things had just closed.”

— Carla H Krueger

“Too old for dolls. Too ill for tablets.”

— Carla H Krueger

“Nader refused to bring her the feathery dream catcher – her asabikeshiinh – with its willow-web and invisible ‘lady spider’ apparently weaving her spells…

— Carla H Krueger

“Beyond the boundaries of herself, her parents and the enclosing garden walls, were open fields and other waiting places she still knew nothing of…

— Carla H Krueger

“Bea stared at the pencils as if they were enemies.”

— Carla H Krueger

“On some days she was able to see both sun and moon at the same time. Like feuding cousins, they hung in two corners…

— Carla H Krueger

“Youngsters deserve no opinions.”

— Carla H Krueger

“Prayer is better than pills.”

— Carla H Krueger

“A silence absorbed them both – a lack of sound so potent it blackened the place with something richer than hate.”

— Carla H Krueger

“For no real reason – well, perhaps because of the seriousness under the trees or Nader’s hair, which was very messy and covered in…

— Carla H Krueger

“I suffered my own battles. I suffer still.”

— Carla H Krueger

“She heard him speak, but did not recognise the problem in his voice – only later did she realise it was that thing he’d…

— Carla H Krueger

“Fear spread through the house.”

— Carla H Krueger