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21 " Do you own a garden?” Before she could respond, Polly answered for her. “Of course not. If you did, you would know that squirrels and other varmints are the enemy. They strip my peach trees and tear up my greens and steal my pecans. And just the other day I caught a squirrel dragging his butt between my cucumbers and sugar peas like a dog. That was pure spite. "
― Kathy Hepinstall , The Book of Polly
22 " That’s what war was. A great motion and then a great stillness in which the winner crouches and the loser lies facing the sky. "
― Kathy Hepinstall , Blue Asylum
23 " Wives were not supposed to hate their husbands. It was not in the proper order of things. "
24 " The world was cruel and sudden. This he knew for sure. Relax for a moment, breathe in the scent of a rose, rest in the shade, pet a dog, take a sip of lemonade, fall in love with a dreamy-eyed girl or a haunted-faced man, and you are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Buzzing around the lemonade, you’ll find flies. Follow the flies and you’ll find death. "
25 " Give that bully that is history a bleeding lip. "
26 " HE MISSED THE WOMAN, missed her more than blue could cover. "
27 " In that darkness they exchanged rumors: A dozen victims had been drawn and quartered. John Brown had eaten their flesh. Slaves were rising up everywhere, holding secret meetings in an old cemetery at the edge of town. Arden had heard that the first sign of the uprising would be the discovery of all the dogs in Winchester piled in a heap at the edge of town, their throats cut. even families like the Beales who owned no slaves would not be spared. revenge would trade color for color; whites would die for no other crime than being white. At that very moment, John Brown’s disciples were trying to free him from jail before his execution. "
― Kathy Hepinstall , Sisters of Shiloh
28 " They were sisters, the pretty one and the one who lived in her shadow, a pale, chip-toothed, uncertain girl who made too much noise while eating celery. "
29 " She loved him that much, in a way that made no space for herself, as though he were a full glass of tea and she was the piece of ice that would cause an overspill onto the tablecloth. "
30 " You boys ain’t but two weeks off the farm. Your mama probably gave you your last bath. You think you went through one battle and you’re soldiers now? I saw that boy fight for his cause. I saw him sicken and almost die for it. He sang around that fire when he had nothing left to sing. He sang for us. that boy gave everything and then he up and left and I say God bless him. "
31 " You are chicken for sure. Got a whole yellow trickle moving the wrong direction down these parts, and a trickle of black folks going the other way. Black and yellow, like a bumblebee. "
32 " On the one side was Darcie Burrell—a reed-thin woman with a permanently conflicted expression, as though, deep inside her, someone was trying to bathe a cat. She attended our church, and was famous for praying over people who later "
33 " Hayley was being nice. And had made a successful metaphor.Death was surely near. "
― Kathy Hepinstall
34 " And the time to say it was days ago, perhaps weeks ago, but it was never said. Like the fireflies she used to keep in Mason jars, the promise of its telling had glowed intermittently."I love you," he said. And now the fireflies shone with a constant light. "
35 " The better the child, the worse the teenager, "