Surprise

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From The Story of My Experiments with Truth (An Autobiography) (1927)

  ‘You civilized fellows are all cowards. Great men never look at a person’s exterior. They think of his heart.’ We entered the Cardinal’s mansion. As soon as we were seated, a thin, tall, old gentleman made his appearance, and shook hands with us. Narayan Hemchandra thus gave his greetings: ‘I do not want to take up your time. I had heard a lot about you and I felt I should come and thank you for the good work you done for the strikers. It has been my custom to visit the sages of the world and that is why I have put you to this trouble.’ This was of course my translation of that he spoke in Gujarati. ‘I am glad you have come. I hope your stay in London will agree with you and that you will get in touch with people here. God bless you.’ With these words the Cardinal stood up and said good-bye. Once Narayan Hemchandra came to my place in a shirt and dhoti. The good landlady opened the door, came running to me in a fright this was a new landlady who did not know Narayan Hemchandra and said: ‘A sort of a madcap wants to see you.’ I went to the door and to my surprise found Narayan Hemchandra. I was shocked. His face, however, showed nothing but his usual smile. ‘But did not the children in the street rag you?’ ‘Well, they ran after me, but I did not mind them and they were quiet.’ Narayan Hemchandra went to Paris after a few months’ stay in London. He began studying French and also translating French books. I knew enough French to revise his translation, so he gave it to me to read. It was not a translation, it was the substance. Finally he carried out his determination to visit America. It was with great difficulty that he succeeded in securing a duck ticket. While in the United States he was prosecuted for ‘being indecently dressed’, as he once went out in a shirt and dhoti. I have a recollection that he was discharged. 1. An Indian Pulse. ↵ 25.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  [Gal 3:16 ] 8 “I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger [moving from place to place], all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession [of property]; and I will be their God.” [Acts 7:5 ] 9 Further, God said to Abraham, “As for you [your part of the agreement], you shall keep and faithfully obey [the terms of] My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 “This is [the sign of] My covenant, which you shall keep and faithfully obey, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 “And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be the sign (symbol, memorial) of the covenant between Me and you. 12 “Every male among you who is eight days old shall be circumcised throughout your generations, [including] a servant whether born in the house or one who is purchased with [your] money from any foreigner, who is not of your descendants. 13 “A servant who is born in your house or one who is purchased with your money must be circumcised; and [the sign of] My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 “And the male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.” 15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai (my princess), but her name will be Sarah (d Princess). 16 “I will bless her, and indeed I will also give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael [my firstborn] might live before You!” 19 But God said, “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son indeed, and you shall name him Isaac (laughter); and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him. 20 “As for Ishmael, I have heard and listened to you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will greatly multiply him [through his descendants]. He will be the father of twelve princes (chieftains, sheiks), and I will make him a great nation. [Gen 25:12–18 ] 21 “But My covenant [My promise, My solemn pledge], I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.” 22 And God finished speaking with him and went up from Abraham.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  This done, she made haste to open to her husband, to whom quoth she, as soon as he entered the house, 'You have very soon despatched this supper of yours!' 'We have not so much as tasted it,' replied he; and she said, 'How was that?' Quoth he, 'I will tell thee. Scarce were we seated at table, Ercolano and his wife and I, when we heard some one sneeze hard by, whereof we took no note the first time nor the second; but, he who sneezed sneezing yet a third time and a fourth and a fifth and many other times, it made us all marvel; whereupon Ercolano, who was somewhat vexed with his wife for that she had kept us a great while standing at the door, without opening to us, said, as if in a rage, "What meaneth this? Who is it sneezeth thus?" And rising from table, made for a stair that stood near at hand and under which, hard by the stairfoot, was a closure of planks, wherein to bestow all manner things, as we see those do every day who set their houses in order. Himseeming it was from this that came the noise of sneezing, he opened a little door that was therein and no sooner had he done this than there issued forth thereof the frightfullest stench of sulphur that might be. Somewhat of this smell had already reached us and we complaining thereof, the lady had said, "It is because I was but now in act to bleach my veils with sulphur and after set the pan, over which I had spread them to catch the fumes, under the stair, so that it yet smoketh thereof."

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  33 Now Joseph’s brothers were seated [by the steward] before him [in the order of their birth]—the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth; and the men looked at one another in astonishment [because so much was known about them]. 34 Joseph selected and sent portions to them from his own table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. So they feasted and drank freely and celebrated with him. Genesis 44 The Brothers Are Brought Back 1 A ND HE commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s [grain] money in the mouth of the sack. 2 “Put my [personal] cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his grain money.” And the steward did as Joseph had told him. 3 As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. 4 When they had left the city, and were not yet far away, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow after the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil [to us] for good [paid to you]? 5 ‘Is this not my lord’s drinking cup and the one which he uses for divination? You have done [a great and unforgivable] wrong in doing this.’ ” 6 So the steward overtook them and he said these words to them. 7 They said to him, “Why does my lord speak these things? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! 8 “Please remember, the money which we found in the mouths of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Is it likely then that we would steal silver or gold from your master’s house? 9 “With whomever of your servants your master’s cup is found, let him die, and the rest of us will be my lord’s slaves.” 10 And the steward said, “Now let it be as you say; he with whom the cup is found will be my slave, but the rest of you shall be blameless.” 11 Then every man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack [confident the cup would not be found among them]. 12 The steward searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. 13 Then they tore their clothes [in grief]; and after each man had loaded his donkey again, they returned to the city. 14 When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there; and they fell to the ground before him. 15 Joseph spoke harshly to them, “What is this thing that you have done?

• From The Decameron (1353)

  [Footnote 250: _i.e._ to attend the ecclesiastical function called a Pardon, with which word, used in this sense, Meyerbeer's opera of Dinorah (properly Le Pardon de Ploërmel) has familiarized opera-goers. A Pardon is a sort of minor jubilee of the Roman Catholic Church, held in honour of some local saint, at which certain indulgences and remissions of sins (hence the name) are granted to the faithful attending the services of the occasion.] [Footnote 251: _i.e._ Bandy-legs.] Now in that part of the garden, whither Pasquino and Simona had betaken themselves, was a very great and goodly bush of sage, at the foot whereof they sat down and solaced themselves together a great while, holding much discourse of a collation they purposed to make there at their leisure. Presently, Pasquino turned to the great sage-bush and plucking a leaf thereof, began to rub his teeth and gums withal, avouching that sage cleaned them excellent well of aught that might be left thereon after eating. After he had thus rubbed them awhile, he returned to the subject of the collation, of which he had already spoken, nor had he long pursued his discourse when he began altogether to change countenance and well nigh immediately after lost sight and speech, and in a little while he died. Simona, seeing this, fell to weeping and crying out and called Stramba and Lagina, who ran thither in haste and seeing Pasquino not only dead, but already grown all swollen and full of dark spots about his face and body, Stramba cried out of a sudden, 'Ah, wicked woman! Thou hast poisoned him.' Making a great outcry, he was heard of many who dwelt near the garden and who, running to the clamour, found Pasquino dead and swollen. Hearing Stramba lamenting and accusing Simona of having poisoned him of her malice, whilst she, for dolour of the sudden mishap that had carried off her lover, knew not how to excuse herself, being as it were beside herself, they all concluded that it was as he said; and accordingly she was taken and carried off, still weeping sore, to the Provost's palace, where, at the instance of Stramba and other two comrades of Pasquino, by name Atticciato and Malagevole, who had come up meanwhile, a judge addressed himself without delay to examine her of the fact and being unable to discover that she had done malice in the matter or was anywise guilty, he bethought himself, in her presence, to view the dead body and the place and manner of the mishap, as recounted to him by her, for that he apprehended it not very well by her words.

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  I’d stopped listening. Behind us, I heard the light pop of a wine bottle opening. I thought I should get up to refill my glass, but I was unwilling to lose the sill. The airball inflated. Students crowded the lawn. They reached up, hundreds of open hands trying to swat the globe. Shouts swelled with each change in direction. The ball bounced, and rose: the beige sphere gleaming, a downed sun. It fell, then rolled. It soared again. —in thinking they’re doing good, Nikhil said. Still, those girls’ deaths had to be an accident. It has to be the reason no one’s taking credit for the clinics. The bombers must have been pro-life, though I don’t like using that term— I broke in. What clinics, I said. They both turned to me, astonished. I think I’d guessed while I asked. But as though I hadn’t, or as if, by pretending, I’d change a truth I didn’t want, I repeated the question. – I stayed long enough to establish that the girls who died had been identified as five local high-school students, and then I left Nikhil’s suite. Pausing at a newsstand, I bought papers. I scanned headlines while I walked. On Mitchell Street, a block from home, a van almost hit me. It swerved right, honking. In the apartment, I opened my laptop. Hands shaking, I had to keep retyping search terms, but then I pulled up the news. Friday night, at 8:00, explosions had leveled five women’s health clinics in New York State, including in Noxhurst. The clinics had all provided abortions. Each clinic was the sole occupant of a building with an open parking lot. Initial reports indicated that truck bombs had been left next to load- bearing walls. The five girls belonged to a cheerleading squad. They’d been in the wide Noxhurst lot, practicing a routine, when the bomb exploded. Bodies had been retrieved, the girls’ involvement ruled out. With the repeated fives, it sounded fictitious, like the lead-in to a bad joke. I’d been alone in the carrel, studying. How hadn’t I heard about this, Nikhil had said. Didn’t I read the news, what had I been doing— My phone had died, so I called Phoebe from the landline, a candy-red vintage rotary phone she’d found years ago in a Paris street market. I picked it up. It felt solid, reliable. Even the handset had weight. We’d installed the line in case I was needed at home while I had the cell phone on silent, since I was always afraid I’d miss a late-night call. Phoebe had objected, at first, but then she produced this shining relic. You should have seen it when I bought it, she’d said, with pride, showing me the scratches she’d filled in, the extra polish. It had taken a long time to find a glaze that matched. She loved this phone. I was surprised she’d left it behind. Now, I noticed I’d let dust muddle its high gloss.

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  RIVERHEAD BOOKS An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 Copyright © 2018 by R. O. Kwon Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. ISBN 9780735213890 Ebook ISBN 9780735213913 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Version_1 To Clara Kwon and Young Kwon 이 책을 부모님께 바칩니다 CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph 1. WILL 2. JOHN LEAL 3. PHOEBE 4. WILL 5. JOHN LEAL 6. PHOEBE 7. WILL 8. JOHN LEAL 9. PHOEBE 10. WILL 11. JOHN LEAL 12. PHOEBE 13. WILL 14. JOHN LEAL 15. PHOEBE 16. WILL 17. JOHN LEAL 18. PHOEBE 19. WILL 20. JOHN LEAL 21. PHOEBE 22. WILL 23. JOHN LEAL 24. PHOEBE 25. WILL 26. JOHN LEAL 27. PHOEBE 28. WILL 29. JOHN LEAL 30. PHOEBE 31. WILL 32. JOHN LEAL 33. PHOEBE 34. WILL 35. JOHN LEAL 36. PHOEBE 37. WILL 38. JOHN LEAL 39. PHOEBE 40. WILL Acknowledgments About the Author At the bottom of everything there is the hallelujah. —CLARICE LISPECTOR, Água Viva 1. WILL They’d have gathered on a rooftop in Noxhurst to watch the explosion. Platt Hall, I think, eleven floors up: I know his ego, and he’d have picked the tallest point he could. So often, I’ve imagined how they felt, waiting. With six minutes left, the slant light of dusk reddened the high old spires of the college, the level gables of its surrounding town. They poured festive wine into big-bellied glasses. Hands shaking, they laughed. She would sit apart from this reveling group, cross-legged on the roof’s west ledge. Three minutes to go, two, one. The Phipps building fell. Smoke plumed, the breath of God. Silence followed, then the group’s shouts of triumph. Wine glasses clashed together, flashing martial light. He sang the first bars of a Jejah psalm. Others soon joined in. Carillon bells chimed, distant birds blowing white, strewn, like dandelion tufts, an outsize wish. It must have been then that John Leal came to her side. In his bare feet, he closed his arm around her shoulders. She flinched, looking up at him. I can imagine how he’d have tightened his hold, telling her she’d done well, though before long, it would be time to act again, to do a little more— But this is where I start having trouble, Phoebe. Buildings fell. People died. You once told me I hadn’t even tried to understand. So, here I am, trying.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  9 “[Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and c Asia [Minor], 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!” 12 And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?” 13 But others were laughing and joking and ridiculing them, saying, “They are full of sweet wine and are drunk!” Peter’s Sermon 14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be explained to you; listen closely and pay attention to what I have to say. 15 “These people are not drunk, as you assume, since it is [only] the third hour of the day (9:00 a.m.); 16 but this is [the beginning of] what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS ,’ says God, ‘THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL MANKIND ; AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY , AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE [divinely prompted] VISIONS , AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM [divinely prompted] DREAMS ; 18 EVEN ON MY BOND-SERVANTS , BOTH MEN AND WOMEN , I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR OUT MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. 19 ‘AND I WILL BRING ABOUT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS (attesting miracles) ON THE EARTH BELOW , BLOOD AND FIRE AND SMOKING VAPOR . 20 ‘THE SUN SHALL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD , BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD COMES . 21 ‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD [invoking, adoring, and worshiping the Lord Jesus] SHALL BE SAVED (rescued spiritually).’ [Joel 2:28–32 ] 22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man accredited and pointed out and attested to you by God with [the power to perform] miracles and wonders and signs which God worked through Him in your [very] midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, when handed over [to the Roman authorities] according to the predetermined decision and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross and put to death by the hands of lawless and godless men. 24 “But God raised Him up, releasing Him and bringing an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in death’s power. 25 “For David says of Him, ‘I SAW THE LORD CONSTANTLY BEFORE ME ; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND , SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN [from my state of security].

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  I stayed long enough to establish that the girls who died had been identified as five local high-school students, and then I left Nikhil’s suite. Pausing at a newsstand, I bought papers. I scanned headlines while I walked. On Mitchell Street, a block from home, a van almost hit me. It swerved right, honking. In the apartment, I opened my laptop. Hands shaking, I had to keep retyping search terms, but then I pulled up the news. Friday night, at 8:00, explosions had leveled five women’s health clinics in New York State, including in Noxhurst. The clinics had all provided abortions. Each clinic was the sole occupant of a building with an open parking lot. Initial reports indicated that truck bombs had been left next to load-bearing walls. The five girls belonged to a cheerleading squad. They’d been in the wide Noxhurst lot, practicing a routine, when the bomb exploded. Bodies had been retrieved, the girls’ involvement ruled out. With the repeated fives, it sounded fictitious, like the lead-in to a bad joke. I’d been alone in the carrel, studying. How hadn’t I heard about this, Nikhil had said. Didn’t I read the news, what had I been doing— My phone had died, so I called Phoebe from the landline, a candy-red vintage rotary phone she’d found years ago in a Paris street market. I picked it up. It felt solid, reliable. Even the handset had weight. We’d installed the line in case I was needed at home while I had the cell phone on silent, since I was always afraid I’d miss a late-night call. Phoebe had objected, at first, but then she produced this shining relic. You should have seen it when I bought it, she’d said, with pride, showing me the scratches she’d filled in, the extra polish. It had taken a long time to find a glaze that matched. She loved this phone. I was surprised she’d left it behind. Now, I noticed I’d let dust muddle its high gloss. I rubbed it with my shirt. But she was in Los Angeles. No one could fix a phone like this, then blow up five clinics. The call didn’t go through, and it occurred to me the landline couldn’t dial long-distance numbers. I plugged in the cell phone. When it blinked on, I called Phoebe. I left a message. Talk to me, I said. Please. I waited, then I tried again. 32.JOHN LEALIf he could, he’d admit that, at times, it wasn’t simple. They’d pledged to fight in the service of the living God, and he’d learned to accept that faith is not a gift. It is not the object you receive intact, at once, by putting out a hand. Though long streamers of sunlight might fawn at his feet, faith came as the hard-won reward, battle spoils he wrested from the heaped debris. The wars to come would be a divine healing, in which the pure would not be killed.

• From The Incendiaries (2018)

  One day sped past, then several, until I thought it would be more insulting if I wrote, at this late point, than if I didn’t respond at all. The note might have been lost in transit, or she’d written to the wrong Will Kendall. – While I still had Phoebe with me, hot in my arms, singing Ella Fitzgerald back to life as I washed the dishes, I knew what I was losing, and it ached as if she’d already gone. The expected rift came in late March. I was home; she planned to have gimlets with Julian at the Colonial. I’d heard his reproaches tolling from Phoebe’s earpiece when he called. I miss you, angel, he’d said. Bix misses you. He says no one’s asked for his house special in ages, and how could you be unkind to Bix? I was in the kitchen, fixing a salad. I sliced a red onion lengthwise, then into minute squares. I swept the last diced bits off the knife: piled amethysts, I thought, a geode. I had the idea I’d show it to Phoebe. I’d finished most of a bottle of wine. She was in the bedroom, door open, trying to zip up a dress. It was a black shift I liked, and I laughed as I said, I’m coming, I’ll help. She flinched at the sound, but she’d left the door open. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that I’d noticed she was changing. She backed up to the wall, bent elbows slanting above her head. No, I can do it, she said. Let me help, I insisted. I’ll zip the dress. I spun Phoebe to face the wall, lighthearted, but then I saw that, in the space where the knit dress gaped open, she had a back crisscrossed with welts, bruises. In spots, the skin had broken. Some of the marks had partially healed. Others looked fresh, a dull red. Phoebe, I said. What is this? She pulled away from me, flushing. Phoebe, please— It’s nothing. Who did this to you? She walked out of the room, and I followed. We sat at the kitchen table. I asked if I should call the police, if she was in pain. No. Phoebe, what happened? She’d tell me, she said. But first, I had to listen. They’d been holding group penances. In turn, they detailed how they’d failed God, then asked the others to help them with physical notes of what they’d resolved. One night, they sang to God while they knelt on uncooked rice grains, hands up until their arms collapsed. They fasted. The flesh is strong; the mind, frail. We believe with our bodies, she said. She was still in the half-zipped dress, but she’d also thrown a coat on her shoulders, with fawn cashmere so thick and soft that, at parties, I used to be able to reach into a pile of coats and find hers by touch.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  10 They all paid [a great deal of] attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God!” 11 They were paying attention to him because for a long time he had mystified and dazzled them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the c good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon believed [Philip’s message of salvation]; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he watched the attesting signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed. 14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that [the people of] Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 They came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; 16 for He had not yet fallen on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus [as His possession]. 17 Then Peter and John laid their hands on them [one by one], and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this authority and power too, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your money be destroyed along with you, because you thought you could buy the [free] gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart (motive, purpose) is not right before God. [Ps 78:37 ] 22 “So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, this thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are d provoked by bitterness and bound by sin.” [Deut 29:18 ; Is 58:6 ] 24 But Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me both of you, so that nothing of what you have said will come upon me.” An Ethiopian Receives Christ 25 So, when Peter and John had given their testimony and preached the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, preaching the good news [about salvation] in many Samaritan villages [along the way]. 26 But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the road that runs from Jerusalem down to Gaza.” (This is a desert road). 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch [a man of great authority], a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning, and sitting in his chariot he was reading [the scroll of] the prophet Isaiah.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  6 When they had traveled through the entire island [of Cyprus] as far as Paphos, they found a sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus, 7 who was [closely associated] with the c proconsul [of the province], Sergius Paulus, an intelligent and sensible man. He called for Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God [concerning eternal salvation through faith in Christ]. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is how his name is translated) opposed them, trying to turn the proconsul away from accepting the faith. 9 But d Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit and led by Him, looked steadily at Elymas, 10 and said, “e You [Elymas] who are full of every [kind of] deceit, and every [kind of] fraud, you son of the devil, enemy of everything that is right and good, will you never stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord? [Hos 14:9 ] 11 “f Now, watch! The hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, [so blind that you will be] unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him, and he groped around, seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 The proconsul believed [the message of salvation] when he saw what had happened, being astonished at the teaching concerning the Lord. 13 Now Paul and his companions sailed from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but g John [Mark] left them and went back to Jerusalem. 14 Now they went on from Perga and arrived at Antioch in Pisidia, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading of the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets, the officials of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers (kinsmen), if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, he said, “M en of Israel, and you who fear God, listen! 17 “The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great and numerous during their stay [as foreigners] in the land of Egypt, and then with an h uplifted arm He led them out of there. [Ex 6:1 , 6 ] 18 “For a period of about forty years He put up with their behavior in the wilderness. [Deut 1:31 ] 19 “When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave their land [to our ancestors] as an inheritance—this took about four hundred and fifty years. [Deut 7:1 ; Josh 14:1 , 2 ] 20 “After this, He gave them judges until the prophet Samuel. 21 “Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  Andreuccio, hearing this fable so orderly, so artfully delivered by the damsel, without ever stammering or faltering for a word, and remembering it to be true that his father had been in Palermo, knowing, moreover, by himself the fashions of young men and how lightly they fall in love in their youth and seeing the affectionate tears and embraces and the chaste kisses that she lavished on him, held all she told him for more than true; wherefore, as soon as she was silent, he answered her, saying, 'Madam, it should seem to you no very great matter if I marvel, for that in truth, whether it be that my father, for whatsoever reason, never spoke of your mother nor of yourself, or that if he did, it came not to my notice, I had no more knowledge of you than if you had never been, and so much the dearer is it to me to find you my sister here, as I am alone in this city and the less expected this. Indeed, I know no man of so high a condition that you should not be dear to him, to say nothing of myself, who am but a petty trader. But I pray you make me clear of one thing; how knew you that I was here?' Whereto she made answer, 'A poor woman, who much frequenteth me, gave me this morning to know of thy coming, for that, as she telleth me, she abode long with our father both at Palermo and at Perugia; and but that meseemed it was a more reputable thing that thou shouldst visit me in my own house than I thee in that of another, I had come to thee this great while agone.' After this, she proceeded to enquire more particularly of all his kinsfolk by name, and he answered her of all, giving the more credence, by reason of this, to that which it the less behoved him to believe.

• From Girls & Sex (2016)

  Denison nodded. “Every choice we make we either surrender or gain power, right?” she said. “With alcohol and drugs, you’re surrendering power. Which is why people do it sometimes, because they want that. But let’s not be ignorant. Let’s realize that with each sip, you lose some power to discern what’s going on around you; you lose the power to take care of yourself, to judge your emotions.” A girl in a gray sweatshirt chomping on a big wad of bubble gum raised her hand. “I think that you have to make the definition of consent very clear,” she said. “If someone doesn’t literally say, ‘Yes I want to,’ then stop. Even if they didn’t say no. Even if they’re intoxicated. Even if they said they wanted to and then changed their mind. That’s not consensual.” “She’s saying make consent clear,” Denison said. “You’re making a lot of sense. Someone is hooking up with someone, they’re totally into it. The other person is like, ‘Is this okay?’ And they say, ‘Yeah, bring it on!’ But then, all of a sudden, it starts not being okay. What needs to happen then?” “The person needs to say, ‘I’m not okay with this now,’” the girl said. “‘We can either stop or turn it back and do what we were doing.’” “That’s awesome. But what if the person isn’t saying it. What could the other person do?” “Ask if it’s okay,” the girl replied. “Excellent,” Denison said. “It is super sexy to get consent. The idea of just saying”—she dropped her voice an octave, jutted out her chin like a teenage boy—“‘Hey, is this all right? You okay?’” She paused for a second to let that sink in. “That’s nice. It’s not, ‘I would like to take out my legal documentation right now and get my attorney.’” The kids laughed. “And part of it is recognizing that there are a lot of ways to be sexual. It doesn’t have to be this linear thing of going from point A to point B. We have all this language, all these metaphors that say you have to go from here to there.” She brought up the baseball metaphor, with its familiar images of “rounding the bases,” “home runs,” and “scoring.” “There’s never this idea that someone might go up to bat, hit the ball, round second, and say, ‘You know what? I kind of like it here. I’m just going to stay here. I’m not going to go all the way home.’ You’d lose the game, right? But if someone says yes, that doesn’t mean yes all the way through. There’s this useful thing around consent: Any good lover is a good listener. And a bad listener is at best a bad lover and at worst a rapist.” The kids gasped. “Whoa!” someone said.

• From Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings (2018)

  His teeth gnawed until his lips bled.Spasms racked his muscles until it seemed his bones would snap.Her headache was a hostile squatter occupying every inch of her head.His expression was drawn in agony, but not over his own pain. SurpriseEveryone loves a twist, right? Which is why your characters will probably be surprised rather often. Here are some ways to describe that: He shot up an eyebrow.He whipped his head around.“What?” she asked with a tilt of her head, as if listening to music only she could hear.She clamped her mouth shut, but her jaw went slack when she saw him. “You!”She arched a questioning eyebrow in his direction.His face remained a plank of wood, his amazement hidden by a slow breath.He raised his eyebrows at her in disbelief.His mouth slackened.A question kept gnawing at her.He gazed to one side as if playing back the memory in his mind.Her eyes widened.Her eyebrows shot to her hairline.Her eyebrows arched.Her lips thinned. She craned her neck to get a view of her back.Her head whipped around so fast, she heard a crack .She slapped a hand over her mouth.She covered her mouth with her hand.She pressed a hand to her throat.She slapped her forehead.He smacked his forehead.He facepalmed.She slapped a hand over her mouth.Her eyes widened.Her jaw slackened.He cocked an eyebrow in surprise.She looked at him with folded arms and raised eyebrows.Her eyes popped wide.The subtle rise of his eyebrow put a giggle in her belly. WorryA simple “he frowned” is the easiest way to portray a troubled character. It can get overused rather fast, though.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  And your father has stopped caring about them and is worried about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?” ’ 3 “Then you will go on further from there, and you will come to the terebinth tree of Tabor, and three men going up to [sacrifice to] God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a jug of wine. 4 They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from their hand. 5 “After that you will come to a the hill of God where the garrison of the Philistines is; and when you come there to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place [of worship] with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, and they will be prophesying. 6 “Then the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you mightily, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into another man. 7 “When these signs come to you, do for yourself whatever b the situation requires, for God is with you. 8 “You shall go down ahead of me to Gilgal; and behold, I will be coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you must do.” 9 Then it happened when Saul turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came to pass that day. 10 When they came to the hill [Gibeah], behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came on him mightily, and he prophesied [under divine guidance] among them. 11 Now when all who knew Saul previously saw that he actually prophesied now [by inspiration] with the prophets, the people said one to another, “What has happened to [Saul, who is nobody but] the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” 12 And a man from there answered, “But who is the father of the others?” So it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” 13 When Saul had finished prophesying, he went to the high place [of worship]. 14 Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?” And Saul said, “To look for the donkeys. And when we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went to Samuel [for help].” 15 Saul’s uncle said, “Please tell me, what did Samuel say to you?” 16 And Saul said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found.” But he did not tell him about the matter of the kingdom which Samuel had mentioned.

• From Vox (1992)

  59 the wheels and the eyes that move when you pull it along the floor, and I ask how Stevie's doing and have a little conversation with him and then I say, 'Stevie, would you like to speak to Paul?' And Stevie says yes. Paul is a relative—this happened last time I was back home—and Paul, who's sitting right there, gets this startled look, his hand automatically flies up to take the tiny plastic phone that I'm handing to him, he interrupts whatever real conversation he's been having and he says, 'Hello?' and his smile is very complicated—he almost believes." "That's right!" he said. "And here I am talking to you, and you truly are somewhere on the East Coast, and you're wearing a bra!" "Amazing as it may seem. What other words do you have for the things I'm looking down at right now and admiring?" "Other words for breasts? Frans is the main one. Some times . . . frannies. Frans, nans, and Kleins. And I never thought 'ass' fit. Sometimes I think of a woman's ass as a 'tock.' " "So then it follows that she has a 'tockhole' as well?" "I never pushed it that far. " "Kleins is strange. Tm squeezing my big fleshy Kleins'? You sure?" "I don't know, I think Patsy Cline is a sexy name. I don't even know who she is." "She's a singer." "I know that much. Once I looked down the list of 60 Kleins in the phone book and found one with a woman's name spelled out, and God, it was everything I could not to call that number. In fact, I did call the number, and she answered, and I said, 'Oh gosh, I must have the wrong number.' And yet the Kleins I've known in real life haven't been surrounded by a mysterious sexual power. " "It's that telephone." "Your last name isn't Klein?" "No," she said. "But I will tell you something." "What? What? What?" "Occasionally when I'm just about to reach an orgasm I ... I think of it as a 'Delgado.' " "Think of what as a Delgado?" he asked. "The erect male cock." "Oh, oh. Sorry." "It's because I was infatuated with a boy named Del gado in high school. So when you said something about, something about your 'sperm-dowel' earlier, I misheard for a second, and I felt this rush of blood—I thought you were using my secret word." "Now see that is what I live for, for someone to tell me something like that. I need that to happen to me every minute, every second." "That's an impossibility." "I will feast on that revelation for weeks to come." "It's a secret, though, so . . ." "Up, it doesn't go beyond this conversation. Out here

• From Vox (1992)

  Army surplus green blanket, Mormon quilt, what?’ She thought for a second, and then she said, she said, ‘I think you should mention a blanket with a fringe.’ I said, ‘But I do not have a blanket with a fringe.’ And she said, ‘You’re right, that’s a problem.’ And then she starts hitting me with all these questions. She goes, ‘How far is the TV from the couch?’ She’d never been to my apartment, of course. I said, ‘Well it’s on a rolling table, so there’s no fixed distance, but then, the cable cord limits the range, so I guess it’s probably about six feet from the couch.’ She noted this down and she goes, ‘Because the woman skimming these personals may need to know that. That little fact might be of the highest importance. Now, is the couch two pillows wide or three pillows wide or four pillows wide?’ I said it was three pillows wide. She said, ‘Like this?’ and on the place mat she started drawing a couch and a TV, so I said, ‘No no, like this,’ and I sketched the layout of the room. Just the couch, the walls, the doors, the electrical outlets. I drew two stick figures with two arrows to indicate where they’d be sitting on the couch. She looked at this, and nodded, and said, ‘Okay, now, the other thing is, you can’t just say “X-vid.” What tape will actually be playing when this is happening?’ I said ‘Wulp, it would be a pornographic movie of some sort, I guess I’d rent a bunch before she showed up, six or ten, and there’d be some trial and error.’ She said, ‘Well I just don’t think you’ll get a response with that kind of vagueness. You have to commit yourself to a situation.’ And I said, ‘But you know there are thousands upon thousands of dirty tapes.’ She said, ‘That’s just it. Is it a classic that she may well have seen, or will it be something she probably hasn’t seen? Will it be new to you or not? These little distinctions are crucial. ’ And she said, ‘And also—if you specify a certain tape, then, you see, she reads the ad and she rents the tape and while she’s watching it, the ad may become more and more interesting to her.’ So I said, ‘Golly, you’re absolutely right. I do have to say which tape.’ But I said, ‘But I don’t know which it should be. I know what tapes I like, but I don’t know which particular tape would potentially be interesting to her.’ And much to my surprise, she had a suggestion. She said, ‘Let me make a suggestion. A dubbed tape. A foreign dubbed tape.’ And she explained why.

• From The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988)

  The two women never stopped drinking. First thing in the morning they’d stir up a batch of bloody marys, declaring that they were on vacation and determined to whoop it up. I discovered that my sister no longer thought I was a weirdo but someone who’d had the courage to lead a free life. She seemed strangely gratified that I found Peg beautiful—my sister apparently was as obsessed with physical beauty as I. I think she also was hoping that somehow, mysteriously, things would work out between Peg and her in my presence. I was shocked. I called Maria and said, “I had closed the books on my sister. She was the mother of three and the PTA member. Do you think she’s really a lesbian? Or is she just copying me?” Maria laughed. “Didn’t you tell me she was always getting crushes on other girls? She never dated men and she married the first guy who asked her.” My sister and Maria spent a long boozy evening in New York together after Peg flew home early. “Your sister is a riot,” Maria reported. “She is so extraordinarily frank—frank to the point of shocking even jaded old me. But she has no sense whatsoever of her rights as a woman. She’s terribly confused. She says the worst things about herself, thinking she’s being honest. She hates her husband, she never stops drinking and she’s absolutely desperate about Peg, but funny at the same time. It sounds like the suburbs are a lesbian hotbed. Tomorrow night we’re going to a dyke bar; your sister has already bought boots and trousers.” Another night my sister made me accompany her to a black-and-tan lesbian dance place where a lesbian band was playing. There we were, me in a coat and tie, she in her suburban pleated gray skirt and shoulder-strap bag (we’d been to the theater), trying to get past the bouncer, although we looked like a provincial husband and wife who’d strayed to the wrong door. “But we’re gay!” we kept protesting, laughing. “We look square but we’re a hundred percent gay.” Then I added, “This is my sister and she’s trying to come out and she’s afraid to come in here alone.” That did the trick. I’d never felt so close to my sister before. I was no longer the younger brother but the older mentor, despite my misgivings. We sat in a corner, studied the dancers, and, hypnotized, watched a standing woman comb her seated girlfriend’s hair with an Afro pick, slowly, hair by hair. The face was as rigid as a Benin bronze and the hair was caught in a lavender and gold crosslight. I asked my sister how she could give up the security of marriage.

• From The Beautiful Room Is Empty (1988)

  We were just a handful of students clustering three nights a week around our conversation teacher in the one lit classroom in an otherwise dark building. The stairs creaked. Our teacher, an ageless Chinese woman in a dark blue lusterless silk dress, asked me in Mandarin to run out and see if it was a strange “nose person” (bi ren)—and in that instant we kids, all Caucasian, learned that’s what the Chinese called us because of our big noses. Our teacher clapped a hand over her mouth under her own suitably snub nose and blushed. We called her the “straight lady,” because she could have been drawn entirely in straight lines, her pageboy and bangs, her eye slits and thin wrists, her breastless body. She was quite proud of her up-to-date attitudes (she was both a Methodist and a lifetime member of the YWCA), but she retained odd scraps of folk wisdom (and the Chinese inability in English to distinguish between he and she). She said to me, “You look tired” (pronounced “tod”), “very, very tod. Me too, I always tod. One day I look at my dog and say, ‘Why he never tod? She never tod.’ Then I realize he never tod ’cause she sleep all the time. Now I sleep all the time too. When I have moment between class or food cook, I sleep. I sleep all the time. I never tod.” Through her and a Chinese social club I met a large group of students from Taiwan and Singapore. Two girls, Betty and Kay, invited me and other friends to an enormous dinner served Chinese-style with no tea (“Tea is for every time of the day except mealtime,” they explained) and dozens of tiny plates flying through the air, and, in the center of the table, big bowls of soup and steamed rice. Somehow I’d imagined Chinese women would be—well, Japanese, that is, modest, self-effacing, tittering. But, in fact, Kay, who wore her black hair held back by a wide pink band, was strong enough to defy her family’s insistence that she study medicine or law. All her Chinese friends had an artistic bent, but she alone had the courage to pursue a music degree (she played Chopin études for us on her overly live upright). And she and all her friends loved to tease, not titter, and even played rough practical jokes on one another. Her roommate Betty, women’s tennis champ of Hong Kong, was minuscule and looked no older than fifteen, though she was finishing a doctorate in chemistry. She was wound too tight and kept gaining time; obsessively efficient, she was able all at once to run up a dress, jot down a stream of formulae, practice her backhand, bicycle to the lab, and plan an elaborate evening of amateur theatricals to spoof several friends.