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41 " His soul was susceptible to god's whimsy, just as his body was susceptible to any opportunistic thing that might hurt it. If he'd known how to pray, Six would have asked God to take his gift away. "
― Ayana Mathis , The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
42 " In Georgia, there was a eucalyptus tree in the wood across from Hattie's house, but the plant had been hard to come by in the Philadelphia winter. "
43 " It seems to me that everything is on its way to becoming something else, giving itself up in the service of another. In "
44 " Sala, waking up to the sun and finding her mother groomed, could try to forget the night before. There were many things Sala tried to forget; sometimes she succeeded, for an hour or a day. More often, Cassie wearied and bewildered her. It had grown impossible to know what was real or true, and Sala was afraid all of the time. She learned to put aside things that were too confusing or too painful. And so she set aside the previous evening and hopped out of bed and asked her mother if she could wear her purple corduroy pants to school that day. "
45 " They didn’t understand that all the love she had was taken up with feeding them and clothing them and preparing them to meet the world. The world would not love them; the world would not be kind. "
46 " There were too many disappointments to name and too much heartbreak. They were beyond punishment or forgiveness, beyond what they had inflicted on each other, beyond love. "
47 " All of them...were little lights; sparks flying upward in dark places, trying to stay alight though they were compelled toward ash. They were nearly extinguished one moment, then orange and luminous the next. "
48 " No one could tell her why things had turned out as they had, not August or the pastor or God himself. "
49 " had done the best she could. She was done with regret and recrimination, there was no sense in it for an old woman. "
50 " Somebody always wants something from me,” she said in a near whisper. “They’re eating me alive. "
51 " Somebody always wants something from me," she said in a near whisper. "They're eating me alive. "
52 " Half of what’s wrong with people today is that they ain’t got no place to go that makes them peaceful. "
53 " I think she’s really finished with me this time. I’ll never be finished with her. "
54 " God had indeed set it twirling and twisting every which way when he put black people to owning their own kind. "
55 " But she was gone, and Hattie wanted to give her babies names that weren’t already chiseled on a headstone in the family plots in Georgia, so she gave them names of promise and of hope, reaching forward names, not looking back ones. The "
56 " Six understood in that instant that he had something the ministers wanted and it had given him power among them. He had never been powerful among men. "
57 " now you’re mad ’cause I won’t stay in it. "
58 " She squatted there so long her thighs ached and a wide puddle formed beneath her. The cool air felt nice on her backside, but she couldn’t help looking around to see if anyone was there. "
59 " Hattie clambered from the train, her skirt still hemmed with Georgia mud, the dream of Philadelphia round as a marble in her mouth and the fear of it a needle in her chest. "
60 " Bell had been disdainful of them; she’d thought them small and ordinary. She’d taken such pleasure in saying no to their proposals and breaking their hearts. Women who married men like that did nothing but shop for groceries and nearly die of boredom. But here I am dying anyway. "