Sara Jolene Tilman Quotes

“Sara, do this and Sara, do that. Sara, bring me this. Pick up that. Sara, come here. Sara, go there. Commands that she would never hear again, and that she would not miss.”

“She had avoided burying her mother beneath a blanket of white flowers for, to her, white symbolized purity, and nothing - not even death - would lead her to link Emma Tilman with purity.”

“Tears? She had no tears for Emma Tilman.”

“The tears that finally streamed from her eyes were tears not of mourning but of relief, and tears for the dark unknown that lay ahead of her.”

“When they buried mama, they threw dirt on the last person who’s going to exploit me.”

“If Emma had ever smiled at her, Sara Jolene had not been looking. But Emma had been adept at mental torture.”

“I’m no worse than I ever was. This is just different.”

“She’s, and I’m still not free of her.”

“Well, that’s all in the past. Tomorrow, I’ll start finding out what life is really like.”

“If I have to learn how other people live, I’d better start now.”

“The empty void inside of her was a new experience, or maybe it had always been there, and she’d been so harassed, so put upon that she hadn’t had time for self-reflection.”

“However, she needed a friend, any friend to whom she could feel close. At least she thought that was what she needed.”