Chapter 26

• I found that things were changed. There was an awkwardness now that there hadn’t been before.”
• “I would pretend not to be present, not in the flesh

  The state of absence, of existing apart from the body”
• “The lights were on, as usual, since Serena Joy always avoided anything that would have created an aura of romanticism or eroticism”
• “Serena Joy had changed for me, too”
• “I also felt guilty about her. I felt I was an intruder, in a territory that ought to have been hers.”
• “Also: I now had power over her, of a kind, although she didn’t know it. And I enjoyed that. Why pretend? I enjoyed it a lot”
• 'the hatred was no longer pure and simple'
• You can only be jealous of someone who has something you think you ought to have yourself. Nevertheless I was jealous.
• What? I said, when he didn't go on.

  Impersonal, he said.

  How long did it take you to figure that out? I said.
• women will live in harmony together, all one family, you will be like daughters to them [...] Women united for a common end!
• Your daughters will have greater freedom. We are working towards the goal of a little garden for each one, each one of you.”
• “Men at the top have always had mistresses, why should things be any different now?”
• “he occupies space, he is more than a shadow”
• “To him I am not merely empty”