from Volume I
She didn’t know how many corpses she’d come across in her lifetime, but the first one had to have special significance.
She fantasized about reporting the doctor to the authorities and having his license revoked or, in lieu of that, and more fitting, getting a gun and shooting him.
She wondered uneasily if there were other aspects of her environment she so took for granted that she didn’t even think about them, in fact, didn’t even see them.
She still tracked her menstrual cycle on a calendar and they still abstained from sex on her most fertile day and Ben withdrew the three days before and after that date. Even so, on two occasions, her period was a day or two late.
from Volume II
She didn’t like the way he kissed and couldn’t imagine going to bed with him and thought he might want to get married because he had custody of his three children.
As she went toward the elevators, she wondered if anyone had any suspicion about her reason for being in the hotel that afternoon.
They lay quietly for a short time and then he asked, “Sometime when we make love, will you let me tie you down?”
Late at night, they drove the van onto a huge ferry and crossed the Strait of Gibraltar.
from Volume III
She watched the throngs of American hippies around the National Monument for a time and then walked to the red light district.
“If something happens – say the bank is bombed and our records are destroyed – it could be very disadvantageous to a company to lose all of their financial records.”
She’d gotten back in one piece, the plane was in one piece, and all the aviation officials she’d run afoul of that day had had hours to make trouble for her and had not.
Sunday, when the topic switched from sexual preferences to group sex, she settled into a prone position on her floor pillow, ready to be silent for awhile, since she’d had no experience with groups.
from Volume IV
“Demand more planes. Yell and scream. Shake your fists. And if that’s not enough, take over the airline office.”
“All Americans are naïve for politics. The education in the U. S. is different.”
In her life, almost no one ever hung themselves in the bathroom.
Over meals and as the bus went from one tourist site in La Paz to another, they talked in muted tones about Ward and his untimely, but blessedly quick death and how it had come, as they all hoped Death would come to them, while he was doing something he truly enjoyed – traveling and hiking.