When You Reach Me Identity Quotes

There are differences. Their kitchen floor is yellow and orange linoleum squares instead of the white with gold flakes that we have, and Sal's bed is up against a different wall in the bedroom. But we have the same bathroom floor – these white hexagonal tiles. If I look at them long enough, I can see all kinds of patterns in those hexagons: lines, arrows, even flowers. They kind of shift into these different pictures. It's the sort of thing a person would never try to explain to anyone else, but once, when we were little, I told Sal about it, and then we went into his bathroom to stare at the floor together. Sal and Miranda, Miranda and Sal. (11.3)

The first time I brought Annemarie home to our apartment after school, I wished for two things. First, I wished that the boys wouldn't be in front of the garage. They'd just recently started saying things to me, different things, some of which included the words "sweet" and "baby." Mom said this happened to girls after a certain age, and that what the boys wanted was a reaction, any kind of reaction. (19.1)

Upstairs, a weird thing happened. After living there almost every day of my life, I saw our apartment as if it were the first time. I noticed all sorts of things that were usually invisible to me: the stuffing coming out of the sofa in two places, the burns from Mr. Nunzi's cigarettes, the big flakes of paint hanging off the ceiling, and the black spot next to the radiator where dripping water had stained the wood floor. (19.24)