Laila remembered Mammy telling Babi once that she had married a man who had no convictions. Mammy didn't understand. She didn't understand that if she looked into a mirror, she would find the one unfailing conviction of his life looking right back at her.

I don't think your missing pieces ever fit inside you again once they go missing.

Her mind was present because she was always gone. Her hands were filled because they grasped the meaning of empty. Life was simple. Her husband returned and she served him with indifferent patience this time. When he asked what had happened to her heat for him, she gestured to the west. The sun was setting. The sky was a body of fire.

Generally speaking, we as black people have been celebrated more for when we are subservient when we are not being leaders or kings or in the center of our own narrative driving it forward.

When two people are together, they are not two but six: what each one is, what each one thinks he or she is, and what each one thinks the other is. And what is true for people is also true for countries and organisations.

Those men are most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are under the discipline of shrews at home.