1
When all is said and done, the weather and love are the two elements about which one can never be sure.Alice Hoffman
2
She can feel his blood, just beneath his skin; when he breathes, the air fills with smoke. He's like a dragon, ancient and fearless.Alice Hoffman
3
When the cold comes to New England it arrives in sheets of sleet and ice. In December, the wind wraps itself around bare trees and twists in between husbands and wives asleep in their beds. It shakes the shingles from the roofs and sifts through cracks in the plaster. The only green things left are the holly bushes and the old boxwood hedges in the village, and these are often painted white with snow. Chipmunks and weasels come to nest in basements and barns; owls find their way into attics. At night, the dark is blue and bluer still, as sapphire of night.Alice Hoffman
4
...early on Monday evening, when the sky was the color of a velvet ribbon falling over the hills.Alice Hoffman
5
Children would beg for a peppermint drop each time he walked into town, and they'd follow behind, asking for a second and a third. When he died suddenly, while working late at his office, every boy and girl in the village reported smelling mint in the night air, as if somehing sweet had passed them right by.Alice Hoffman
6
The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world.Alice Hoffman
7
...and so many orchards circled the village that on some crisp October afternoons the whole wold smelled like pie.Alice Hoffman