“We knew how she felt. We would never get to be the girls we voted for. The ones we turned into queens. “

“He didn’t want to feel like life could change that quickly, as if you didn’t get to decide anything really, that it was all just happening to you.”

“It was the only way to keep going as if everything would be OK. They needed to believe this was the worst it could get.”

“There didn’t used to be an everybody. There used to be Mamie and Val, and then there was an everybody else.”

“He was her boss, too, so Sandy kicked the brake off his wheels though she struggled to get this once towering man over the threshold.”

“We tried not to stare, but her left arm was lifeless, paralyzed, and her hand curled at the end like a comma.”

“Often, we read fiction with curiosity, wanting to know how a story will turn out, what will become of the characters, but Cupolo’s stories push our curiosity into nosiness.”