Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2228]

Today we had a funeral for Bankole’s dead—the five people who died in the fire. The cops never came. At last Bankole has decided that they aren’t going to come, and that it’s time his sister and her family had a decent burial. We collected all the bones that we could find, and yesterday, Natividad wrapped them in a shawl that she had knitted years ago. It was the most beautiful thing she owned. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2228

Note

The journal voice flattens catastrophe into schedule (‘Today we had a funeral’), then the shawl arrives and reopens it: bones wrapped in the best thing a woman owns. The sentence ‘It was the most beautiful thing she owned’ refuses to comment, letting the gift’s cost be counted by the reader. Grief and practicality in the same breath is Lauren’s whole register.