Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [669]

Keith scared me out of a very sweet mood. He came from behind two houses without making a sound. He had almost reached me before I realized someone was there and turned to face him. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 669

Note

The sentence order is the fear: her mood is named and killed in the first clause, then the narration travels backward to show the approach she never heard. ‘From behind two houses’ is a precise, odd detail — not a hiding place but a route — and the delay before ‘and turned to face him’ reproduces in the reader the moment she describes.