Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [631]

The food smelled just about ready, so I got up and took the bread from the oven and bowls from the cupboard. I was tempted to tell him to dish up his own stew, but I knew he would spoon all the meat out of the stew and leave nothing but potatoes and vegetables for the rest of us. So I served him and myself, covered the pot, left it on the lowest possible fire, and put a towel over the bread. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 631

Note

The scene’s tension gets discharged into domestic logistics: the narrator’s withheld anger is measured out as stew ladled, pot covered, fire lowered, bread toweled. The prediction that he would take all the meat is a one-line verdict on his character delivered as household practicality rather than as accusation.