Klara and the Sun

When he’d posed his question – about children really understanding what it meant to love – I believe he was already sure of the answer and was simply raising the question for my benefit.

I know I’ll always keep searching for someone just like her.

But now we’re no longer kids, we have to wish each other the best and go our different ways.

Fear entered my mind

repeating under her breath, ‘Josie, Josie, Josie,’ as though this were part of a song she was memorizing

Perhaps all humans are lonely. At least potentially.

Of course, a human heart is bound to be complex. But it must be limited.

And it was clear the Sun was unwilling to make any promise about Josie, because for all his kindness, he wasn’t yet able to see Josie separately from the other humans, some of whom had angered him very much on account of their Pollution and inconsideration, and I suddenly felt foolish to have come to this place to make such a request.

I’m surprised someone would desire so much a path that would leave her in loneliness.

Until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.