““She couldn’t go looking for loss. Of any kind. Because it would awaken those old feelings, the ones she kept tightly coiled inside, the ones she knew she couldn’t survive a second time. And they were already stirring. She could feel them as if they were living creatures, hibernating snakes sensing spring, sensing the dread that grew within her at every news report out of Europe, at every letter. Waiting to rip her apart.””
