Sarah thought that thinking was the opposite of feeling. Wasn't she taught this? But here she was, feeling new things, feeling more things, and it seemed to be a direct result of thinking new things.
You can't take it with you. She had always been afraid of loving too much. Now she realized that she also had always been afraid of feeling too much. She realized that her old thoughts - toes are objects, people are programs - protected her from her feelings by separating her from the world around her. But now, on this park bench, she was connected, and helpless in the face of her feelings.
How was she supposed to go to work, keep her apartment clean, with these red rhinoceroses running around? How could she continue this life, which she had so carefully pieced together in an attitude of cold detachment?
Things were going to change. My God, things were going to change.
Dahlia, covered in pain like a lush purple drapery, waited tables with efficiency and grace. She loved her job for the first time in her life.
END CHAPTER ONE