“Death surrounded everyone with the Black Death and many searched for an escape from the scythe of death.”

“I was born in 1954, July 17, at sunrise, in Detroit. Mom was 19 years old. I didn’t know it was the fifties at the time.”

“[My girlfriend’s] mother was a good woman. She was working for an insurance company, and they were economically middle class, and her sister who was younger was in high school. She was really cute and did some strange things. I liked her family a lot.”

“Why were you so embarrassed? Haven’t you ever had a relationship with a girl? Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

“No, I don’t have any problem with them, but I have never had an emotional relationship with one, and I have never had a girlfriend.”

“I’ve got to go to the pisseria.”

[immediately follows the previous entry]

“She couldn’t calm the terror growing in her, and she broke into a run.
Something moved out from between two cars.
What’s that?
She froze. Her knees felt weak. Her heart pumped wildly.
It’s a dog! She was terrified of dogs.”

“I mustn’t panic! If it’s a mugger, I’ll kick him right where it hurts.”

“The third day, [the baby] would not open her eyes and her fever was running very high and all of a sudden she was dead. [The baby] was a child who normally would not cry for any reason. She was very sweet and soft-spoken, so anyone never got tired of her. She was really an angel as personified by her namesake and now she is dead.”

“She thought this might rekindle the feeling she had when she fell in love and stigmatize their kisses.”

“My home wasn’t always here in China. I was once a wizard—that’s right. I was once a great practitioner of elemental magic. I was also a sailor who loved traveling to different parts of the world.”