i want to give up my bearings, slip out of who i am, shed everything, the way a snake discards old skin. - Khaled Hosseini

I'm so afraid. Because I'm so profoundly happy. Happiness like this is frightening...They only let you this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...

She would never leave her mark on Mammy's heart the way her brothers had, because Mammy's heart was like a pallid beach where Laila's footprints would forever wash away beneath the waves of sorrow that swelled and crashed, swelled and crashed.