The Children’s Bible

Lydia Millet

“There was a pattern to the sticks on the ground ahead of him, I noticed while he whistled some irritating tune. The pattern reminded me of pies we used to eat at Thanksgiving, each with a lattice crust on top. What kind of pies had they been? Apple? Blueberry?” p. 159

“He burned something that looked suspiciously like sticks of furniture, and on the two-burner camp stove we boiled water and cooked ramen from packets.” p. 85

“If they lived long enough to get a bunch of melanomas, they figured, they’d bust out the champagne.” p. 31

“It was champagne. It foamed around his mouth. Dripped down his neck and soaked his shirt.” p. 54

“I followed the two of them through the door, stood in the cottage garden under an arched wooden trellis with small roses growing over it. Watched them walk past a fenced enclosure where some vegetables are growing—tall rows of corn, dark clumps I’d learn later were kale and chard.” p. 98

“Fragments of fruit and cheese littered the sand, and soon even those had been snatched—the gull were nothing like the deer.” p. 34

“We watched, munching on soggy sandwiches, as the barbecue-eaters folded their striped umbrellas. From the yacht, a purring and glossy powerboat came up into the shallows.”
p. 25

“Even the bratty twins pitched in. In exchange for stale candy none of the rest of us wanted, they did menial jobs like diaper washing and folding.” p. 216

“‘You didn’t get enough to drink last night?’ I said.

‘I drank Cokes on the yacht,’ he said. ‘Stayed sober. thought I had to monkey-wrench.’” p. 53