The Things That Make Us Happy Make

Learning To Decipher Words Had Only Added To The Pleasures Of Holding Spines And Turning Pages, Measuring The Journey To The End With A Thumb-riffle, Poring Over Frontispieces. Books! Opening With A Crackle Of Old Glue, Releasing Perfume; Closing With A Solid Thump.

Violet Said Nothing, Though Big Pearly Tears, Like A Child's, Trembled At Her Lashes. She Suddenly Missed John Very Much. Into Him She Could Pour All The Inarticulate Perceptions, All The Knowings And Unknowings She Felt, Which, Though He Couldn't Understand Them Really, He Would Receive Reverently, And Out Of Him Would Come Then The Advice, The Warnings, The Clever Decisions She Could Never Have Made.

First, She Wanted To Taste The Sweat That Shone On His Throat And Fragile Clavicle; Then He Chose To Undo The Tails Of Her Shirt, That She Had Tied Up Beneath Her Breasts; Then, But Then Impatient They Forgot About Taking Turns And Quarreled Silently, Eagerly Over Each Other, Like Pirates Dividing Treasure Long Sought, Long Imagined, Long Withheld.

God, He Thought, Her Eyes Are So Bright, Flashing, Deep, Full Of Promise, All Those Things Eyes Are In Books But Never Are In Life, And She Was His.

The Further In You Go, The Bigger It Gets.