“She is face down on the table as the hospital machine whirrs closer, and she thinks: she could lose them, these things that she carries, and it would not matter anywhere near as much as she’s told it would matter, though that may be because her breasts have never mattered much to her. “

“It was dark. Cold. I opened my eyes, and it was still dark. Wood at my sides. Softness in the crook of my left arm. My right hand touched a ceiling overhead.”

“The glass was cursed. That was what the twins said the morning Wahala died. They burst into my room, shrieking and bouncing on my bed like it was Christmas Day.”

“When I walk under Darrell and Tabby’s wooden archway leading into their flower garden and koi pond, I hope I’m not intruding. From the rural road we all live on, I waved hello and Darrell waved back.“

“You’re in the bathroom taking the longest whiz of your life when the microwave starts hollering that your food is done…”

Take a cup of organic henna powder. Yes, organic. Otherwise, you’re buying brownish-green dirt and chemicals. Of course, it’ll cost you. Beauty, after all, has a price. 

“My boyfriend shows up at my apartment with his face made up like a hideous monster. It’s not Halloween, but he’s an amateur actor, so I’m more surprised than shocked.”

“A week after Mom leaves, Dad tells us to stop asking about her. A postcard arrives. We recognize Mom’s handwriting. Dad snatches it away.”

“At thirteen, she’d stepped out of the forest into a place where the water was a solid sheet of green.  She was trusting then –innocent of what the color meant.”

“According to your back story, you have two sons. Kevin, who's eleven, right? And Keith who's fourteen. So it's Keith and his friend from next door. Uh..."Tadpole" is his name.”

“Every day, people came in and pawned a piece of their lives to keep living. Sometimes they bought it back. Sometimes they didn’t. But I always saw them again.”

“That’s when Nadine started to act as though she were built superior, even though she didn’t have the widest hips, hadn’t even shown that much before he was born, her stomach more of a suggestion than an assertion of pregnancy.”

“‘You don’t have to say anything.’ The blue heron is picking its way through the shallows, and they watch him finding his food. Charles said, ‘There was one time I had to kill a man with a knife.’”

“…you never see kids using food stamps? Are we not rich enough for you with our brown hands gripping colorful paper that is not quite money...”

“The closer you get, the more the emptiness emerges. What is keeping it all together? she wonders. And Who decides where it all goes? And What’s a girl gotta do to get off this shithole rock?”

“Nell gurgled around the thing in her mouth. ‘There’s nothing to fear,’ Dr. K said. ‘Nothing’s going to happen.’ Dr. K positioned the tool near Nell’s eye. It gleamed like a horrible tooth. One last time, Nell tried to speak, not with words but with movement.”