Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2165]

There was no way to be certain, but I assumed that the bones belonged to Bankole’s sister and her family. I think Bankole assumed that, too, but he couldn’t bring himself to just bury the bones and write off his sister. The day after we got here, he and Harry hiked back to Glory, the nearest small town that we had passed through, to talk to the local cops. They were, or they professed to be, sheriff’s deputies. I wonder what you have to do to become a cop. I wonder what a badge is, other than a license to steal. What did it used to be to make people Bankole’s age want to trust it. I know what the old books say, but still, I wonder. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2165

Note

Lauren’s narration shifts from reporting to interrogating the word ‘deputy’ itself. The doubled ‘I wonder’ turns into a question about what a badge once meant to an older generation — a query about lost civic faith that she can only partially answer from books. ‘I know what the old books say, but still, I wonder’ is the passage’s hinge: knowledge without belief.