Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [868]

Because I have things to tell you, I thought. Because if you reject me or make me reject you with your reactions, I don’t want to have to hang around and watch you with someone else. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 868

Note

The unspoken answer, italicized only by ‘I thought,’ exposes the whole gap between the spoken negotiation and the withheld reason. The paradox in ‘if you reject me or make me reject you with your reactions’ grants her complicity in a rejection she can’t control, and the fear at the end is oddly specific and petty in the best way — not of loneliness but of the visual, ‘watch you with someone else.’