them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive. - Percival Everett

There was a mama raccoon that lived in the tree. She had taken to walking past me nonchalantly in the darkness. Tonight she stayed in the tree, high above me, listening to the dogs. We were both animals and we didn’t know which of us was the prey. We accepted that we both were.

had already come to understand the tidiness of lies, the lesson learned from the stories told by white people seeking to justify my circumstance.

Perhaps to protect me from the bright light of God. If there was a God, he or she was no good at its job. Apparently there was just too much to do, listening to the prayers of all those who actually mattered, the faithful, the pious, the deluded, the stupid.