Chapter 11C
onnie finds a tattered checkerboard and enough pieces counting the three odd buttons for the missing black ones. Ceci wants the red ones, naturally. Anna patiently reminds her sister of the rules.
Connie eases herself into the rocker with a copy of Leaves of Grass. “I celebrate myself and sing myself.” She sinks into the sweeping cadence, rocking along with the poet’s words. The girls’ voices recede, subsumed by the vast music of the poem. Soon sunlight peeks into the living room windows spilling onto the page, the girls’ hair, the checkerboard. She feels enormous with well-being, with hope. As if the next phrase, or the one after that, will unlock some mystery she cannot name.
“No fair! No fair!” Ceci hurls a fistful of black checkers, severing the fragile filament on which
