But they did not come.

Nothing came.

I have thought a great deal, since, about that numbness, because it frightened me a little, even as it saved me.

There is a place a person’s heart can go, after years of small daily cruelties, that is past hurt entirely — a cold, clear, quiet place where the feeling has worn away, like a stone worn smooth by water.

It is not peace.

It is closer to the opposite of peace.