...Karla hadn't been allowed to try. Both her children and their other parents--and any other adult in the room--had forbidden it.

"I think the part I liked best about last weekend was seeing the children who were already friends. Elizabeth and Kayla. Nommy and Henry. It made them seem more real almost. Real little people with their own ideas and relationships. Made them feel less like phantoms conjured up by Fandom for a weekend, you know?"

It had also made Della and Rook's situations seem more real. And frightening.