“Greenie Coombs became my best friend the last summer of making things up. We were in fourth grade, way too old for playing with Barbies, which is why we were so close: we had to protect our secret.” — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“Kids in my history class pulled out their cell phones and turned them on. I did the same, and as we all lifted our heavy backpacks, the doors of every classroom clanked open and out flowed the river of students with phones clapped to their ears. Soon the quad was a sea of backpacks and people staring nervously into space… — Laura McNeal Copy Share
“Tu' eres de dos mundos." He was wrong, of course. You can only belong to one world at a time.” — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“I had no idea whether they played hide-and-seek in Mexico. Still, it was a game that let me be confident instead of self-conscious and confused, so I reached out my hand to touch the nearest part of him, which was his knee. "Tag," I said. "You're it." If he had run, I could have chased him and known what I… — Laura McNeal Copy Share
“On September 13, we were the kindling, and a monstrous god leaned over us to breathe. Clouds melted, brush trembled, and the ocean burned… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“Wanting to play God for your own private purposes, whatever they are, might be what getting greedy is” — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“This time when we kissed, he didn't pull away, and I was close enough to his mouth for him to whisper what the tiny old vaquero had said a long time ago, the part of being of two worlds. "Tu eres de dos mundos." I closed both of my eyes, the blue one and the brown one, so I could… — Laura McNeal Copy Share
“Inside the house, near the hearth, Amiel had built a sort of fire pit with rocks. It was a safer place to cook than… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“the April day when the Americans mounted the stone steps and pushed the door buzzer, rain had fallen for eleven of the last eleven… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“She had curled every strand of her hair with rags, attempting something along the lines of Myrna Loy as the Countess Valentine, but what… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“I had reached the end if the trail and the dead end of Willow Glen Road, which meant I had a long way to… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“Amiel was looking at me with the kind of interest that made my mouth dry up. I was Braille and his eyes were fingers.” — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
“My whole life reminded me of how it felt to ride, when Greenie and I were little, in the back of Greenie's mother's car,… — Laura McNeal Copy Share Image
