Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [585]

“No I won’t. I know what I’m doing.” He kissed her, then, with surprising ease, took her arms from around him. “I’ll come back and see you,” he said. “I’ll bring you presents.” … And he vanished out the back door, and was gone. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 585

Note

The refusal earns its chill in the physical detail: Cory is clinging, and Keith removes her arms ‘with surprising ease’—the strength is new, and the narrator registers it as new. ‘I’ll bring you presents’ converts his mother into one more recipient of stolen largesse, and ‘vanished out the back door’ gives him the exit of a stranger, not a son.