bibliotheca
She pushes a stroller heaped with picture books. There's a child in there too, somewhere.
cramping
At some point, he started to sound like a 1950s TV dad. Though in some ways he has matured, his thoughts have also hardened and narrowed.
mindset
I leave the room in anger. Outside, a few things calm me: The air, the trees and the soft afternoon light. The self-possession I feel, when I finally realize that the greatest part of my anger comes from things I'm insecure about or afraid of in myself.
rafters
The music surrounds us, forms a roof over our head with the clouds and stars beyond it.
recollecting
I'm told she was a quiet, self-conscious child who sometimes had problems at school. Her own stories of her childhood are different - that she was confident, tough, never afraid.
slacken
The cough that latched onto my windpipe for weeks is finally relaxing its grip.
surmount
The bottom half of the beech tree is a mess of scars and initials. Farther up, the trunk smooths out, rising past all the parts that are defaced.
