“I wish more than ever that I could be with you right now, for your father has undertaken no small task; but since I cannot be there, you must love him doubly hard. You must give him not only your own support, but also try to give him mine as well.”
“I came to help,” Uncle snapped. “Not because I believe in your crazy dream. Call it an old man’s whim if you like.” But then Uncle relented for a moment. “And we didn’t come to laugh. There will be those among the Tang people who will laugh – but now they will have to laugh at all of us, for we’ll share in your folly.”
[Father] hung his head for the longest time, staring down at his hands. I could only think of some immortal who had suddenly woken one morning to find himself in a man’s body and realized he was being punished. For the second time in my life, I made an important decision to be with him.
“I want to fly too, Father,” I said.
“A mother’s death also means the loss of the consistent, supportive family system that once supplied her with a secure home base, she then has to develop her self-confidence and self-esteem through alternate means.”
“But I can’t blame my parents for our poverty because my mother and father are the twin suns around which I orbit and my world would EXPLODE without them.”
“Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light.”
“I didn’t even want to think about the preacher preaching about how God is in control of it all, or my mother, my sweet, sweet mother caught in the middle of it all. The referee who blows the whistle but is way too nice to call foul on anyone. That’s her. She just wants me to be okay. That’s it and that’s all.”
“It was a myth that every mother and daughter were best friends, but friendship was far less important than family. Friends came and went; family was always there.”
“His parents supported his curiosity and saved until they could give him his own camera and microscope. At the time, his enthusiasm was misunderstood.”
During the six years which had passed since Noirtier first fell into this sad state, Valentine’s powers of invention had been too often put to the test not to render her expert in devising expedients for gaining a knowledge of his wishes, and the constant practice had so perfected her in the art that she guessed the old man’s meaning as quickly as if he himself had been able to seek for what he wanted.