When the Reckoning Comes

How long, did you think, after all of this, it would be before their souls finally came for you in the night?

You’re a good girl. You’re so good, you’ve let the desire to be it overtake you. It’s defined who you are. …. You’ve always believed being this way was going to somehow save your life, but it’s stolen it instead. Let me ask, what did being good ever do for you?

Alone she had to face the reality of what she saw and her own participation in it, because watching was participating, wasn’t it? Allowing it to continue?

Somewhere was a bridge where bodies were hung. Somewhere a tree, its branches twisted in the form of an ache. Somewhere grass grew from land soiled with death. Somewhere was a house built from blood, its prominent columns once a sign of wealth, of prominence, now become an altar. Oh, how beautiful. Oh, how lovely.

They’d never yessir and mistah their way to freedom.

North Carolina weather could be unpredictable, especially this near the coast.

If you look hard enough at any one of our stories you’ll find some tragedy lurking.

What if we clamored and yelled, fought in every way we could? And what if we weren't alone? What if it was all of us together rising? Can you imagine it? Can you imagine what we could do?

Hush though, and listen. If you’re quiet, you can hear their whispers in the water calling to those left behind. Hush and you can hear them lurking, waiting for the day they can make their return.

To believe, one must care, and who’s to say anyone ever cared?

What are you?” the boy had asked and not, “What are you supposed to be? The ambiguity in the question unnerved her. Had he been referring to what she looked like? Throughout her life she’d been asked that many times, within the question the expectation that of course she was something else besides black.

She’d thought the choice was his, not realizing that with her lie she’d been the one to make the decision, and it became clear there was no way to take any of it back.

They were all beautiful, Mira told her, they were all already perfect, but for Celine it was about more than the dress. The wedding was a chance for her to be seen as someone worthy, as beautiful, as deserving of the attention spent.