- Charlie Keys: What was wrong with Dad?
- Amelia Keys: He had a... He had a brain disorder. Made him believe certain things.
- Charlie Keys: What kind of things?
- Amelia Keys: Oh, he's dead now, Charlie. Do you really want to remember this part of him?
- Charlie Keys: I want whatever I can get.
- Amelia Keys: He believed he'd been taken... by aliens. Lots of times.
- Charlie Keys: And the men? The people we were hiding from?
- Amelia Keys: Well, I guess they believed that, too.
- Charlie Keys: How about you?
- Amelia Keys: I don't know, sweetie. I don't know what I believe. Your dad said once they were like his guardian angels.
- Charlie Keys: He thought they were protecting him?
- Amelia Keys: No, no. He thought they wanted him for something. He believed that they had saved him from dying in Vietnam. I think, in the end, he thought they were coming after you.
- Charlie Keys: They have come for me. More than once. That's why he screamed the last time he saw me. He could see that they were already taking me. If you were eight, yeah, maybe this would scare you. But you know what, Mom? None of this scares me anymore. Now it just makes me mad. If they come for me again, I'm not going without a fight. And if that lands me in some hospital room, sitting, staring out some window, screaming, then that's what it does.
- Lisa Clarke: You said you'd tell me about these people, why you think they're looking for me.
- Tom Clarke: The man that came into your house, his name was Eric Crawford. His father was an army colonel. His name was Owen Crawford. And he came after your father. Came after Jacob. Your Aunt Becky and I fooled him into thinking that Jake was dead, but I guess that Eric figured it out.
- Lisa Clarke: But why was Owen Crawford looking for my dad? Uh... This has to do with the things you write about.
- Tom Clarke: See? You already knew. You knew the first time you called me.
- Lisa Clarke: And you said one day you'd explain it all to me.
- Tom Clarke: I never told anyone about your father. I didn't put it in any of my books. But when Eric Crawford came after you, I should have told you.
- Lisa Clarke: I don't know if I would have believed you. So, this Crawford came after me because I'm... one-quarter alien?
- Tom Clarke: Does make you pretty interesting.
- Allie Keys: [narrating] My mom says that life is like a roller coaster ride. There are ups and downs, there are big scares and slow builds and places where it levels out. The only difference with this roller coaster is that every time it stops, you get off in some place totally different from where you got on.
- Allie Keys: [narrating] Sometimes the best way to move into the unknown is to take familiar steps. Small steps. To do ordinary things to deal with something that is in no way ordinary. We're always going someplace new, all the time. Familiar things just let us pretend that we aren't moving into unfamiliar territory. You take those small, familiar steps, and you try to be honest. Not to live as if nothing has changed but still to go on with your life. But there are times when what you need is a piece of how things used to be.
- Allie Keys: [narrating] My mom told me once that when you're afraid of something, what you want more than anything else is to make it go away. You want your life back to the way it was before you found out that there was something to be afraid of. You want to build a high wall and live your old life behind it. But nothing ever stays the same. It's not your old life at all, but your new life with a wall around it. Your choice is not about going back to the way things were. Your choice is about hiding, or about going right to the heart of the thing that scares you.
- Allie Keys: [narrating] People say that when we grow up we kick at everything we've been told. We rebel against the world our parents have worked so hard to bring us into. That part of growing up is kicking at the ties that bind. But I don't think that's why we kick at all. I think we kick when we find out that our parents don't know much more about the world that we do. They don't have all the answers. We rebel when we find out that they've been lying to us all along. That there isn't any Santa Claus at all.
- Allie Keys: [narrating] Is every moment of our lives built into us before we're born? If it is, does that make us less responsible for the things we do, or is the responsibility built in, too? After you hit the ball, do you stand and wait to see if it goes out, or do you start running and let nature take its course?