Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [771]

Dad didn’t come home today. He was due this morning. … I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what to think. I’m scared to death. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 771

Note

Three short declaratives and then a triplet of fragments that get progressively less grammatical — the syntax disintegrating under the pressure of the news. “I’m scared to death” lands hard because the passage has just been denying itself any emotion, and the flatness of “He was due this morning” does the suspense work without a single adjective.