Passage Explication 1: Cumulative The next day he called and…

Passage Explication 1: Cumulative The next day he called and when I heard his voice I was cool but I wouldn’t go to the mall or anywhere else.  My mother sensed that something was wrong and pestered me about it, but I told her to leave the fuck alone, and my pops, who was home on a visit, stirred himself from the couch to slap me down.  Mostly I stayed in the basement, terrified that I would end up abnormal, a fucking pato, but he was my best friend and back then that mattered to me more than anything.  This alone got me out of the apartment and over to the pool that night.  He was already there, his body pale and flabby under the water.  Hey, he said.  I was beginning to worry about you.    

Passage Explication 5: There are, of course, other ways to k…

Passage Explication 5: There are, of course, other ways to kill your lobster on-site and so achieve maximum freshness.  Some cooks’ practice is to drive a sharp heavy knife point-first into a spot just above the midpoint between the lobster’s eye-stalks (more or less where Third-Eye is in human foreheads).  This is alleged either to kill the lobster instantly or to render it insensate, and is said at least to eliminate some of the cowardice involved in throwing a creature into boiling water and then fleeing the room.  

Passage Explication 2: Cumulative “I have to tell you someth…

Passage Explication 2: Cumulative “I have to tell you something, Twyla. I made up my mind if I ever saw you again, I’d tell you.” “I’d just as soon not hear anything, Roberta. It doesn’t matter now, anyway.” “No,” she said. “Not about that.” “Don’t be long,” said the woman. She carried two regulars to go and the man peeled his cigarette pack as they left. “It’s about St. Bonny’s and Maggie.” “Oh, please.” “Listen to me. I really did think she was black. I didn’t make that up. I really thought so. But now I can’t be sure. I just remember her as old, so old. And because she couldn’t talk- well, you know, I thought she was crazy. She’d been brought up in an institution like my mother was and like I thought I would be too. And you were right. We didn’t kick her. It was the gar girls. Only them. But, well, I wanted to. I really wanted them to hurt her. I said we did it, too. You and me, but that’s not true. And I don’t want you to carry that around. It was just that I wanted to do it so bad that day-wanting to is doing it.” Her eyes were watery from the drinks she’d had, I guess. I know it’s that way with me. One glass of wine and I start bawling over the littlest thing. “We were kids, Roberta.” “Yeah. Yeah. I know, just kids.” “Eight.” “Eight.” “And lonely.” “Scared, too.” She wiped her cheeks with the heel of her hand and smiled. “Well that’s all I wanted to say.” I nodded and couldn’t think of any way to fill the silence that went from the diner past the paperbells on out into the snow. It was heavy now. I thought I’d better wait for the sand trucks before starting home. “Thanks, Roberta.” “Sure.” “Did I tell you My mother, she never did stop dancing.” “Yes. You told me. And mine, she never got well.” Roberta lifted her hands from the tabletop and covered her face with her palms. When she took them away she really was crying. “Oh shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to Maggie?”