I tasted the sour on my tongue and felt it inthe back of my mouth. Then before I reached the door, the sting was burningdown my legs and into my Sunday socks. I tried to hold, to squeeze it back, tokeep it from speeding, but when I reached the church porch I knew I’d have tolet it go, or it would probably run right back up to my head and my poor headwould burst like a dropped watermelon, and all the brains and spit and tongueand eyes would roll all over the place.

But I had seen the fingers cut by the mean littlecotton bolls, and I had witnessed the backs and shoulders and arms and legsresisting any further demands.

life, which in the early morning had been softene

Our parents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and Fathershipped us home to his mother.