Fri
Mar
27
“ I’d made myself believe that I was fine and happy and fulfilled on my own without the love of anyone else. Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I’d spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn’t matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.
And then someone passed me a bit of some sweet stuff and I suddenly realized I had been to China. So to Speak. And I’d forgotten it. It was the taste of the sweet stuff that brought it back - I think it was marzipan…I was twelve years old. I was at a party at the house of one of my friends, a birthday party…this boy - I didn’t know him - he asked me to dance, and so we had the first dance and then the next, and by that time we were talking…And you know what it is when you like someone, you know it at once; well, I liked him such a lot…And I think it was at that party, or it might have been at another one, that we kissed each other for the first time. It was in a garden, and there was the sound of music from inside, and the quiet and the cool among the trees, and I was aching - all my body was aching for him, and I could tell he felt the same - and we were both almost too shy to move. Almost. But one of us did and then without any interval between - it was like a quantum leap, suddenly - we were kissing each other, and oh, it was more than China, it was paradise…It was such a sweet time, so short…But there it was. I’d known it. I had been to China.
And then someone passed me a bit of some sweet stuff and I suddenly realized I had been to China. So to Speak. And I’d forgotten it. It was the taste of the sweet stuff that brought it back - I think it was marzipan…I was twelve years old. I was at a party at the house of one of my friends, a birthday party…this boy - I didn’t know him - he asked me to dance, and so we had the first dance and then the next, and by that time we were talking…And you know what it is when you like someone, you know it at once; well, I liked him such a lot…And I think it was at that party, or it might have been at another one, that we kissed each other for the first time. It was in a garden, and there was the sound of music from inside, and the quiet and the cool among the trees, and I was aching - all my body was aching for him, and I could tell he felt the same - and we were both almost too shy to move. Almost. But one of us did and then without any interval between - it was like a quantum leap, suddenly - we were kissing each other, and oh, it was more than China, it was paradise…It was such a sweet time, so short…But there it was. I’d known it. I had been to China.
Philip Pullman (The Amber Spyglass)
(via winterlief)
AHHH. The Amber Spyglass/the entire trilogy are the best books EVER. And that’s Mary Malone’s best quote in the book haha.
