From a Book

Here is an excerpt from a book I read. It means something specific to me, but take what you want from it. I just want to remember what was written.

"So, after six years of short day visits, Clare ended up at her father's apartment in the city for an entire weekend. It hadnt been so bad, at first. Clare's father had filled every second with activity: the Natural Science Museum, the art museum, a picnic in the park with restaurant food in fancy little boxes instead of sandwiches, a shopping trup during which her father bought her a pair of high-heeled leather boots that her mother thought were unsuitable for an eight-year-old and never let her wear and a red double-faced wool coat embroidered with flowers around the cuffs. The first night, they had gone to dinner at the Four Seasons and afterward Clare had fallen asleep with a new white teddy bear the size of a three-year-old child. But the second night, she'd awakened around midnight and felt suddenly scared of the unfamiliar room with too much light coming through the tall windows. She stepped over to one of the windows and looked down at the moving cars and the people on the sidewalks. It felt lonely to be in the room, with all the lit-up busyness down there, all its noises she couldn't hear. She thought about why she wanted to go home, even though her father was nice to her. Maybe it was because he forgot the names of people she'd just finished tell himg about and because he sometimes asked the same questions twice. But the thing that made her feel dull and almost invisible was the way his gaze would drift sideways or over her shoulder as she spoke. He attention was like a child's when there's a television on in a room, and Clare could sense his eyes scanning as though another, better daughter might skip into view at any moment."

Also...about shortness...
'"What do you think of me as?" Teo paused, as though searching for the proper word and then said, "runty" with admirable deadpan. "You'd make a great stand-up comedian, "I said in a bored voice. "If you weren't so staggeringly unfunny." "seriously," Teo said seriously. "I guess you are short, but I've never thought of you that way." "You think of me as..." I waited. "Essential." he said. I laughed because it was unexpected and also because, although I didnt know what it meant, I liked it. "I mean, of you gave some guy the assignment of creating a woman using as little material as possible but without cutting corners, he'd make you." "why, Teo, that's so...sweet?" But it was sweet. No one had ever told me my corners were uncut before. "I dont know if it's sweet, but it's true. When you're around other women, they end up looking sprawling and overdone, like whoever made them got carried away." "Went way overbudget." I said. "Right," Teo glanced over at me. "Although, the person who made you may have gotten a little extravagant with your face, but probably because he had some leftover to spend." "Economical that guy was," I laughed."

From Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos. Good book, a little strange, but good if you want to read it.