What would his father do then? Go on, Johnny supposed. People had a way of doing that, just going on, pushing through with no particular drama, no big drumrolls.

“But they wrote like little old men and little old ladies, all purseymouthed and…”

“There were fourteen steps exactly fourteen. But the top one was smaller, out of…”

“I wanted to say goodbye to someone, and have someone say goodbye to me. The goo…”

“In the stutter-flashes of light, the clouds look like huge transparent brains f…”