Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [892]

And we all rushed without thinking back to our houses. Wardell Parrish came along with my family, still coughing, and wheezing, and as useless—as weaponless—as the rest of us. We could have been killed, rushing in that way. Instead, we were lucky. We scared away our thieves. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 892

Note

The passage’s power is in the hindsight framing: the group’s self-destructive reflex (rushing weaponless toward intruders) is held up against the contingency that saved them — ‘Instead, we were lucky.’ The triple dash-phrase ‘as useless—as weaponless—as the rest of us’ yokes the grieving neighbor to the family with bleak comic honesty.