If You Come Softly

It is a snowy winter, and Ellie is at Jeremiah’s funeral, following Nelia’s invitation. Surrounded by Black, brown, and golden faces, she notes that many of them look like Jeremiah. While Jeremiah’s dad speaks about his son, Ellie looks at the pictures of Jeremiah that surround her. She spots a small photo of the two of them, taken by another student at Percy as they sat on the steps outside the school. While Marion sits beside her and offers a tissue, Ellie lets the tears fall. When Nelia sings a song about a sparrow “watching over Miah,” Ellie sees that bird “for the quickest moment” coming softly toward her (176).

This chapter consists of just two verses of Audre Lorde’s poem, “If You Come Softly”:

And if you come I will be silent

Nor speak harsh words to you.

I will not ask you why, now.

Or how, or what you do.

We shall sit here, softly

Beneath two different years

And the rich earth between us

Shall drink our tears (177).

Time has gone on, and Ellie is now almost 18 years old. Her time at Percy is coming to an end; she’ll have graduation and prom, and college is on the horizon.