Just a few random quotes from my stories
Green light. Her mind moves her foot from the break to the gas, her eyes lingering on the sky. For what unfathomable ritual have these birds gathered, and why does her soul feel suddenly depleted? The slow turn of the whirl of birds hypnotizes. There’s a meaning up there, something that the sky wants her to know, something about the immortality of heights. She will tell Sam about it. One by one, the birds move from the whirl pattern to lines, like soldiers acquiring a new purpose.
She has to watch the traffic, but the mystery of the sky makes her eyes drift. She looks ahead, hoping for another red light so she can look up again. It is as if her soul is hungry for a secret, something to make her feel part of the flow of time.
("Whirl of Birds")
The out there is big now. Sky is bigger than from cave mouth. Stars are many. More and more woods where we go. We follow river. Woods never end. We climb hill, sit on rocks, in the wind. We clean in river and we drink. Water plays, so we play with water. Water shows my face, two eyes with sky color in them. I open mouth and the face in water opens mouth.
Sometimes my man gets fish with killing stick. Bear gets fish, no killing stick. We stay away from bear, because only two of us. ("My Big Man")
“I will help you clean the house,” my daughter said.
“You come on Saturday, and you help me clean,” I said.
She looked at me the way she looks when she wants to be my mother.
“That’s what you told me last week, and the week before,” she said.
“This Saturday for sure.” She didn’t believe me. I could see it in the way she pursed her lips. ("Driving with Sara")
“It all started with a loophole in them laws. Seems like the cats found a way to say they were people too.”
“Huh?”
“They got some law to show they deserve personhood rights, something like that.”
“A cat is not a person.”
“It ain’t, but it’s a legal kind of person. Some people started to ask for tax breaks for their cats, and insurance, and for tax purposing they made them into people. They got’em into the Constitution and it started from there.”
“But that doesn’t mean cats know anything about rights?”
“Turns out it’s not so hard to know. Once they got word of having some of them rights, they wanted more.” ("Prodigal)
“Faith.” He looked at the sky. “Do you pray, Miss Garrett? You must know, prayer is not just sitting on your knees in the pew. I see you there every Sunday. Prayer is a way of life.”
“I know.” She looked at the grass, avoiding goose droppings.
“Prayer is what we think about through the day. The strongest faith is not—”
“Are you molesting my son?” she said, placing her body right in front of him, blocking his way. ("Away from the Flock")
Gina the white princess eats peaches. She makes believe the giant peaches are real, even if their color is bright, plastic orange. Hungry, the children imagine the taste as they roll their tongues in their mouths. Gina is not sad anymore. Her song is spring, like outside. Her white dress sparkles with the promise of a happy story, even if she is enclosed in a giant bird cage. She eats peaches with hope. She sings of the land that was frozen by a North Pole sorcerer. Outside her cage, little rabbits and ducks are trapped in ice. She summons warm rains to fight the ice. When her song ends, clouds begin to dance in front of her. It rains, and the rabbits jump out from the ice. The ducks fly. They free her from her cage and the curtain falls. ("The Puppet Show")
That’s when he put a gun in my hand, and I wasn’t sure if it had come from downstairs, from my room, maybe, or from upstairs, where perhaps he kept the loaded ones. I told him I didn’t want to take the gun. To do what with it?
“Go saddle Tyler. We’re going to start on the two-hour path, so he’ll think we’re going for two hours. Then we cut through the woods on a path I know, and we catch him in the act. He’ll try to get the third patch for sure.”
“And if he sees us with guns, who do you think he’s going to shoot first? I’ll be like a clown carrying a gun, saying please shoot me.”
“Nah, he won’t try. If he does, I’ll take him down.”
That’s Dan. ("Warner's Caddy")
It was her charm alone that brought the man with the monkey and the camera to take a picture of us in the street that day, with Angela in the middle. He said if we wanted the monkey in the picture, we’d have to pay.
She laughed at us for wobbling in our mother’s shoes, her laugh knowing we’d be spanked later for dirtying and scratching those shoes, and we’d spend hours polishing them—not because they needed or could even take that much polish, but to learn. To learn. ("Painted Snails")
From Diamond Mountain
They were on top of the hill and the most beautiful night canopy twinkled with all the stars of the universe. The air was warm and fragrant. Round, wooden houses could be seen everywhere.
***
“This house!” Murr announced.
He knocked on the round door. A short, round-faced lady in a puffy green skirt came out with a light in her hand. Her whole face was bursting with delight.
“Oh-o-oh!” she said as if she were singing. “There’s no moment sweeter than when the moment has come! You’re all here! There’s Sorell, and there’s little Benya, and Aluna!”
The travelers were speechless.
“Yes, I know all about you. Oh-o-oh, silly me! You cannot find the water until you know where to look for the well! You see, I got this letter!”
She showed them a small, square board with a few lines and dots on it. Then she threw it behind her and went into the house, rustling her skirts.
“Come on in!”
They shyly stepped inside. There was only one room, with a small table in the middle. The walls were lined up with shelves, with small jars and glass figurines of people and animals. The children picked up a few figurines, and the woman beamed with pride.
“This is me!” cried Benya, holding a small girl made of glass.
“Wide is the eye behind the mirror,” the woman chanted and rubbed her hands. “You see, Shadow always tells me a little about my guests before they arrive. Come, I’ll show you your beds. Sleep is the mother of adventure: put your thoughts to sleep and they’ll be ripe in the morning.”
“We’re all sleeping here?” said Mother.
