Home by Toni Morrison

Author:Toni Morrison
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780307959874
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Lotus, Georgia, is the worst place in the world, worse than any battlefield. At least on the field there is a goal, excitement, daring, and some chance of winning along with many chances of losing. Death is a sure thing but life is just as certain. Problem is you can’t know in advance.

In Lotus you did know in advance since there was no future, just long stretches of killing time. There was no goal other than breathing, nothing to win and, save for somebody else’s quiet death, nothing to survive or worth surviving for. If not for my two friends I would have suffocated by the time I was twelve. They, along with my little sister, kept the indifference of parents and the hatefulness of grandparents an afterthought. Nobody in Lotus knew anything or wanted to learn anything. It sure didn’t look like anyplace you’d want to be. Maybe a hundred or so people living in some fifty spread-out rickety houses. Nothing to do but mindless work in fields you didn’t own, couldn’t own, and wouldn’t own if you had any other choice. My family was content or maybe just hopeless living that way. I understand. Having been run out of one town, any other that offered safety and the peace of sleeping through the night and not waking up with a rifle in your face was more than enough. But it was much less than enough for me. You never lived there so you don’t know what it was like. Any kid who had a mind would lose it. Was I supposed to be happy with a little quick sex without love every now and then? Maybe some accidental or planned mischief? Could marbles, fishing, baseball, and shooting rabbits be reasons to get out of bed in the morning? You know it wasn’t.

Mike, Stuff, and me couldn’t wait to get out and away, far away.

Thank the Lord for the army.

I don’t miss anything about that place except the stars.

Only my sister in trouble could force me to even think about going in that direction.

Don’t paint me as some enthusiastic hero.

I had to go but I dreaded it.

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