--Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
“I had raised Zel wrong. I had raised a creative, curious child. I had let the child develop her own inclinations. I had clapped with pleasure at every new discovery, new talent. I had raised a child who could love easily and whom anyone could love back. Oh, what a terrible twist. I had raised a child in the best way I knew how, and it was that mistake that kept her from me now. I hold that child in a tower. The only one I love, the one I love more than life itself; for two years I have held that one in a stone room. And I live alone. I live the life I would have lived if I had never had Zel in the first place. Only it is far worse—for I know what I have lost.”
--Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
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“When I brought Zel to the tower that I had never heard of before but that my feet took me to all on their own, I did it to gain time. I needed to figure out how to lead Zel to the choice that would keep us together. I gave up salvation for all time---surely I deserved more than thirteen years in return.”
--Zel by Donna Jo Napoli “I do not understand why they are showing happy teeth. Do they not miss Halmoni? Are they not mad that they are not in the real heaven? Harabugi is waiting in the real heaven and Halmoni will go there without me. I do not care if we are a step from heaven. I tak a big swallow of the hurting drink. This is not heaven.”
--A Step from Heaven by An Na “Relatives and friends began to search for a bridegroom. A part of me hoped that they would be successful and that someone wanted me. A part of me hoped that no one in the world would want me enough to take me away from my home and my maa and baap and brothers. I knew that after my marriage, I would have to make my home with the family of my husband. For my dowry I began to embroider a quilt,making all my worries stitiches, and all the things I would have to leave behind pictures to take with me.”
--Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan “You couldn’t really tell about Mama’s brain just from looking at her, but it was obvious as soon as she spoke. She had a very high voice, like a little girl, and she only knew twenty-three words. I know this for a fact because we kept a list of the things Mama said tacked to the inside of the kitchen cabinet. Most of the words were common ones, like good and more and hot, but there was one word only my mother said, soof.”
--So B. It by Sarah Weeks “Friday night things get tense at the Hanson residence when Andrea Doris Louis-Hanson tells Henry Clay Hanson that their son, Douglas McArthur Hanson, failed to keep his appointment with Dr. Eleanor Ahlstrom. Words are exchanged. Accusations fly. Ignorance and delusion are revealed, naked and ugly. Threats burn up the air like wildfire. Concessions are displayed and offered for sale. Promises are surgically extracted. I end up in my room. I am quite worried about my parents. Some of the theories my father advanced were quite bizarre, and my mother seemed to accept them. I think they are both losing touch with reality.”
--Invisible by Pete Hautman “I am very easy to get along with. My mother would not agree with that. She finds me difficult. In fact, she thinks that I am troubled and disturbed. I find it troubling that she finds me disturbing, so she must be right. Right?”
--Invisible by Pete Hautman “The ‘good daughter’, and therefore invisible.”
–Rachel B. --I Can't Keep My Own Secrets by the editors of Smith Magazine “Even though she’s still barely willing to speak to me, it feels better than being all by myself. Sometimes I pretend she is Will, and that I know exactly where he is and what’s happening to him, right there above me. Sometimes I try not to think about it, and I don’t pretend anything. Mostly, though, I pretend that everything I’ve told everyone is true: my big brother is dead. In that scenario, at least, we all get some rest.”
--Breathless by Jessica Warman “When she asks about brothers and sisters, I stare down at our hands—at all of our hands, white gloves pulled tight and flawless over our fingers—and all I think about is Will and the blood everywhere the last time I saw him. I remember watching from my window as Donny George stood with a hose in his backyard, rinsing the blood from his kids’ swing set, spraying down the concrete walkway in his yard. It took him forever. As I’m thinking about it, I can feel my shin aching where I fell on the cinderblocks in the Georges’ yard and took a chunk out of my flesh. The words leave my mouth before I can stop them. ‘I had a brother,’ I say.”
--Breathless by Jessica Warman |