“All over the gray facade of his father’s house in scarlet letters he wrote: ELLIOT SCHAFER. He almost added: “was here” but did not, partly because it was a little too cliched vandal for him, and partly because it did not encompass all he wanted to say: was here, is no longer here, is somewhere almost unimaginably different, is all right.”

“All over the gray facade of his father’s house in scarlet letters he wrote: ELLIOT SCHAFER. He almost added: “was here” but did not, partly because it was a little too cliched vandal for him, and partly because it did not encompass all he wanted to say: was here, is no longer here, is somewhere almost unimaginably different, is all right.”

— Sarah Rees Brennan