How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
She asked, "Where's the baby?"
"Where's the baby? How would I know?"
"Stop playing, Strong."
"I'm not."
He looked over toward the empty baby bed. She realized he was as mystified as she was.
He said, "Maybe one of your sisters got her."
"Sadonia did come by yesterday asking to keep her, but I told her no."
"What does that mean to Sadonia? She comes in here and borrows your dresses and your hats without asking. What's to stop her from borrowing your baby?" (3.32-39)
Siblings, right? Always taking your stuff without asking… including your baby.
Quote #2
For the first time in her life, Abby was truly afraid. She felt uncentered. As long as she could remember, she had been waking up to the wonderful ring of her father's baritone voice, to her mother's tinkling soprano, to the calm, reassuring duet of her parents' conversations interspersed every now and then with an "Abby, are you up yet?"
Now that was changed. (7.71-72)
After the tornado destroys his shop, Patience heads out to look for Strong, leaving Abby to wait for him at home. As she waits through the night, Abby's sense of safety diminishes. With her mother out and her father reportedly off his rocker, she feels "truly afraid" for the first time ever, making it clear her parents are her anchors.
Quote #3
She saw a bus pulling out. She looked around the station quickly. Not seeing her father, she peered more closely at the moving bus. She recognized the back of her father's head in the row of seats.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
The head did not turn around. The motor of the bus roared.
"Daddy!"
The bus picked up speed.
"Daddy!"
She ran after the bus until she realized it was too far away for her to possibly catch up. Her father was too far away.
Homeward bound, her footsteps were dejected. Her legs felt heavy. Her head felt light. She felt dizzy and lost. (7.105-112)
After desperately searching for her dad, Abby finds him—but it's too late. If he hears her, he gives no sign, and if the bus driver notices her chasing the bus down, he doesn't show it, either. She's just a girl left chasing after a bus that's carrying her dad out of town after he's lost his mind. It's a truly heartbreaking moment in the book, and its physical impact on Abby makes it clear that she is truly upended.
Quote #4
Although Brother Jacobs was gone and Abby's speaking voice had returned, the Jackson world was not secure. The money saved from their cotton field labor was all used up, and the Better Way Barbershop income was no longer forthcoming. A family could ordinarily glean a living without handouts from the county, but these were not ordinary times for the Jackson household.
Abby's teacher, Miss Pat, sympathetically called the county after several months had passed and Strong had not returned to support his family. (14.1-2)
Sometimes family holds you up, but sometimes—as happens when Strong leaves Patience and Abyssinia—they hold you down. Down both an income source and an income earner, Patience and Abby are running out of money. For more on how this whole visit-from-the-county works out, though, check out "Race" elsewhere in this section.
Quote #5
"You can do it!" she heard from afar. "That's my Abby. That's my baby!"
Was she saved from everlasting hell? Was she to be reborn? Her father's hands were a warm bandage. Her father's voice was a healing balm. (18.32-33)
Guess who's back? Strong is—and just in time, too, since Trembling Sally just did her very best to drown Abyssinia in the Chickaskin River. Now that's good timing, we'd say.
Quote #6
Often Abby found Strong and Patience seated side by side, gazing into the magic of the fire, and something inside her began to mend into a seamless scar. She wanted the healing to be so complete that soon no one could tell where the cut had been made on her soul. The skin of the scar would fade into a thing line; she would be bound with hope, faith, and renewed wonder. (18.38)
Sometimes family breaks you, but sometimes they build you back up, too. Here, shortly after Strong's long-awaited return, Abby senses a chance to heal more fully now that her family is back together under one roof.
Quote #7
Mother Barker was quiet for a minute. Then she said, "My mama and her mama before her knew certain things." (23.46)
Here, Mother Barker is referring to knowledge about healing—apparently Mother Barker didn't just up and teach herself all she knows one day, but instead it was passed down to her from her mother, who learned from her mother, in turn. And now Mother Barker wants to pass this knowledge on down to Abby, showing that sometimes family is about blood relation, but sometimes it's about being kindred spirits. In both cases, family is a source of information.
Quote #8
"I shall go where we all must go when my time here is over."
"But how can you speak of it?" Abby wondered aloud already feeling a sense of loss.
"I already talked it over with Barker. He's in agreement. The house will be yours."
Mother Barker registered the look of hurt and bewilderment in the young woman's eyes.
"You're the only child we have, Abby. Even if Patience did give you birth and Strong is your daddy." (25.18-22)
When Mother Barker dies, she and the foreman have agreed to leave their home to Abyssinia. They see her as their child, so they're passing their home onto her in order to set her up for her future as a healer. Aw.
Quote #9
"What about your girls? You've got to do something. Else they'll think that's what women are for—beating." (27.25)
Abyssinia implores Lily Norene to get herself away from her abusive husband, if not for herself then for her daughters who are growing up in a family in which women are used for little more than punching bags.
Quote #10
The women bent their heads and hummed as they sewed in the manner of creative women since back when cotton became thread, then became cloth. But what they hummed was the melody of Lily Norene's child, this melody taught to her by Abby, this melody whose lyrics were a paraphrase from Mother Barker. (30.28)
Mother Barker was like a second mother to Abyssinia, and now Abby's passed on a bit of Mother Barker to Lily's daughters. Once again, then, we see familial lineage structured around love and investment instead of simply blood.