How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Well, there was no shortage of fanciful stories about winged things. Angels and dragons, sky kelpies and cloud sphinxes. They always turned out to be something else: a glare off the water, shadows in mist, a mirage projected by a tired sailor's bleary eyes. But that night, I had to admit, I kept a sharp lookout as I swept the horizons and hopscotched over my constellations. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, none of Benjamin Malloy's beautiful creatures. But I wish I had. I liked to think there was no end of things aloft in the sky, unseen by us. (1.193)
Matt likes to think there are things in the sky that aren't really there, namely the spirit of his dead father. More on that in a bit…
Quote #2
[…] I slept—and dreamed I was running along the beach. The skeleton was bounding after me, its bony wings flared, its legs stretching long as it soared weightlessly over the sand. Its jaws gaped. I was so slow, so weak. I could barely lift my feet from the sand to take a stride. Why couldn't I go faster? It would be upon me in a moment. What was wrong with me? I should have been able to fly free, but I could not leave the earth. (10.170)
Have you ever had a dream like that? Where you're running from something but it feels like you are in slo-mo? You do spend the whole time wondering why the heck you can't seem to move any faster. Matt wonders why he can't take off and fly, but when he wakes up he knows why. It's because the Aurora is land-locked, and he can't dream he's flying when he's on land.
Quote #3
"When my dad died, I was afraid I'd never ever be happy again. But I was. Once I started working on the Aurora. I loved it. It's the world I was born into. It's all my father's stories. I dream about him up there, and I never do on land. It feels like home aloft. But on the ground, it all catches up with me. So I've got to keep flying, do you see?" (12.34)
Matt can't dream about flying around with his father when he's on land, so he needs to be airborne in order to feel like he's still real. The dreams and the ship are the only things that are keeping his father alive, and so they're the only places where Matt feels truly happy.