Home > Author > Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
1 " How could she have gone from the most exhilarating thing that has ever happened in her life to a moment filled with pure humiliation? She tries to conjure up the light that skipped in her veins earlier when Charles held her. But it only fades in the familiar darkness. "
― Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn , Here Comes the Sun
2 " ...when she wakes up, there is silence, as though the day has held its breath. "
3 " The day Verdene left for England, a part of Margot left with her. Verdene has brought color back into her life. Before, everything was black-and-white: Make money or die trying. Feel pain or feel nothing at all. "
4 " She clung to her like macca bush "
― Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
5 " Nobody love a black girl. Not even herself "
6 " And while people would pardon convicts, drunks, and men who fuck goats, cows, dogs, and children, they are suspicious, almost terrified, of a woman without a family and no religion. Jesus is the only viable excuse a young woman can use to deny the penis. "
― Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn , Patsy
7 " Maybe that’s how it is—maybe life favors certain people and relegates the rest to living in their shadows. "
8 " She knows that the woman is not in Brooklyn, standing on Flatbush Avenue, but home. She went crazy in America, her mind halting in the loneliness, anxiety, and the soundlessness of things falling apart: a sweet surrender. What a relief it must be, Patsy thinks, to stare into the eyes of sorrow and break without the pretense of holding it together. "
9 " It's a sketch of clouds moving across the sky at dusk in the form of a woman. The woman appears to be leaping or running as the sun sets in the background. Below is the sea that stirs with her movement; and the hills and mountains that fade behind her. Margot studies it, her face opening up all kinds of ways. "
10 " Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all . . . Underneath the poem is the name Emily Dickinson "
11 " her body is just a place where their eyes stop and their erections point, while their minds move back to the milk-scented bosoms of their mothers that nursed them into adulthood. "
12 " Dey treat people like dawg if yuh nuh ’ave money like dem,” Mama G said to a very young Patsy, pulling her along. And when Patsy tripped and fell from the sudden force, Mama G shouted at her. “Why yuh suh clumsy? Yuh have two left foot, gyal? You is nothing but a disgrace! Yuh mek me shame! Get up an’ don’t mek me have to drag yuh ’cross dis market! "
13 " Tru's face closes as though she has already figured out that promises are merely sweet lies. "
14 " She doesn’t have the heart to question Bernie about what he knows about Jamaican cuisine, much less how he plans to influence it. Neither does she have the heart to disappoint him by telling him that she’s not into Bob Marley; that Bob Marley was forbidden in her household; that she’d rather listen to Peter Tosh, since Uncle Curtis told her he wrote most of Bob’s lyrics anyway. She still thinks it’s unfair that Peter is the lesser known of the two. Maybe that’s how it is—maybe life favors certain people and relegates the rest to living in their shadows. "
15 " Thandi and Margot sit near the open window, taking in the cool breeze and mosquitoes that land on their flesh. They take turns squashing the fattened insects on their arms and legs, wiping off bloodied palms with old newspaper or tissue. "
16 " a sadness she has always felt, but can never pin down. "
17 " Thandi looks at the rag dolls and the coasters and key chains and handcrafted jewelry that Delores delicately places inside the basket. How would visitors know the real stories behind the faces of the wooden masks they'd buy to have on walls; the rag dolls they'd use to decorate unused furniture in their houses; the figurines they'd place on mantels that they can marvel at and then quickly forget? "
18 " As she waits on Tru, she stares at the high ceiling of the study, feeling small and helpless. Outside, leaves tremble on tree limbs as though fighting to keep a season that has already moved on. The hand holding the telephone shakes. Suddenly there is a burst of sound on the other end. A squeal erupts from a distance, growing louder. When it is close, becoming panting breaths and footsteps, Patsy quickly lowers the phone with a soft click. “I’m sorry,” she says aloud, hoping her apology will carry over the dying autumn landscape across the brooding ocean. "
