...in the caverns of tomorrow, with just our flashlights and our love, we must plunge...
The boy asked the girl to say "I love you" into her can, giving her no further explanation.
And she didn't ask for any or say "That's silly" or, "We're too young for love," or even to suggest that she was saying "I love you" because he had asked her to. Her words traveled the yo-yo, the doll, the diary, the necklace, the quilt, the clothesline, the birthday present, the harp, the tea bag, the table lamp, the tennis racket, the hem of the skirt he one day should have pulled from her body...The boy covered his can with a lid and removed it from the string, and put her love from him on a shelf in his closet. Of course, he could never open the can, because then he would lose all its contents. It was just enough to know it was there."
Jonathan Safran Foer