Emily thought about her father, and she thought about the friends she wished she had. "Well," she said, "let's go see. Let me pack some clothes."
"Emily, we can get more clothes later," said Puff, "We need to hurry."
Emily grabbed her lunchbox and gymbag, left a short note for her mother, and
they all headed out the door.
...
[some of the characters speak:]
Emily's mother Alice:
I bore your child: what did I do so wrong
that you should cast me down so carelessly
and scorn to sweep my fragments from your path?
I know you loved me once: when did you stop?
We swore vows to be constant until death
but you, it seems, escaped both death and vows.
You won't leave my dreams, but awake I know
that gone is gone. How can I escape you?
Emily's father Arthur:
Soldier, father, lover I thought myself,
but now am proven fool, bandit and tramp.
When I deceive myself that I do right
all that I work to save dissolves like fog:
Do all my miles merely measure folly?
I will not stop hopeless, but where I go
I go a foreigner and unattached:
when shall I build my own true people's home?
Emily's grandfather Merlin:
Mere details pullulate, but truth is met
less frequently, and hardly kept if found:
who can digest even a small diamond?
Hard it is to learn, and harder still
to endure fools in silence. I spurned youth
and now am old, without students, self-taught.
Books wait patiently for one who seeks
their treasure, but who will listen to me?
Emily:
Will noone talk to me? I hear mother
cry out in her sleep: is it my fault?
I know she cares, but she never listens.
Did father ever know that I was born?