While I’m reading, a sentence will grab me and force me to stop. I pay tribute to other authors by sharing their Damn Fine Sentences with you. Then I recount a memory the words bring up for me. It’s about how books connect with your life.
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“The crowd hushes like a dying breeze.”
—Jewell Parker Rhodes
--Black Brother, Black Brother
Transplanted from California to St. Louis, I was alone in the apartment I’d just moved into. My windows overlooked a bustling intersection. Car radios blasted. Hot humid wind carried the noise of summer foot traffic, hey mama a counterpoint to what choo lookin at boy. A couple of blocks away, Highway 40 hummed. I took a break from unpacking and lay down for a nap.
I startled awake.
Is that an air raid siren?
I looked out the window. The streets were deserted. The sky was green.
War of the Worlds was playing out in real life, as it had in my childhood nightmares, when I’d hid in my closet.
I turned on the television to the urgent drone of weathermen on every chanel. Tornado. “Within the sound of my voice, seek shelter.”
I crawled into the closet.
####
“The crowd hushes like a dying breeze.”
—Jewell Parker Rhodes
--Black Brother, Black Brother
Transplanted from California to St. Louis, I was alone in the apartment I’d just moved into. My windows overlooked a bustling intersection. Car radios blasted. Hot humid wind carried the noise of summer foot traffic, hey mama a counterpoint to what choo lookin at boy. A couple of blocks away, Highway 40 hummed. I took a break from unpacking and lay down for a nap.
I startled awake.
Is that an air raid siren?
I looked out the window. The streets were deserted. The sky was green.
War of the Worlds was playing out in real life, as it had in my childhood nightmares, when I’d hid in my closet.
I turned on the television to the urgent drone of weathermen on every chanel. Tornado. “Within the sound of my voice, seek shelter.”
I crawled into the closet.
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