There's no point in asking why, even though everybody will. I know why. The harder question is "why not?" I can't believe she ran out of answers before I did.

I watch some kids ask the cafeteria ladies to sign their books. What do they write: "Hope your chicken patties never bleed?" Or, maybe, "May your Jell-O always wiggle?

Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind.

Oppressive bastards, think they own the place. I told them that karma's going to kick their asses.

I wanted to pull down a book, open it proper, and gobble up page after page

A scar is a sign of strength. . .the sign of a survivor.

A breath of steam trickles out, filled with the sobs of a grown woman breaking into girl-sized pieces.