ReadwithNP

“Keep your mouth shut, Retta,” Mama said when I told her what I suspected. “You don’t know nothin’ for a fact.” I listened to her, but Lord, Lord it plagued me. Now I wonder if trouble won’t find you again and again if you don’t speak the truth. I wonder if you got to call what you see by its proper name, to cast out the sin within. I leave the knives on the floor of the slaughterhouse and gather up the children’s underthings. Holding them I feel what was dead come to life. I lay them inside the box, close the heavy lid and fasten the lock, but Miss Annie’s wishes don’t matter any more than mine do. The truth is in the open.”
― Deb Spera, Call Your Daughter Home