Leaving Atlanta

Octavia Fuller mentions that her mother, Yvonne, lies all the time, but is selective about what lies she tells her daughter. For instance, she told Octavia that there was no Easter Bunny but that Octavia’s father, Ray, had sent her an Easter basket when, in fact, Yvonne had bought it. Yvonne also insisted on not telling Octavia that there was a Santa Claus. Why should she believe that an old white man was giving her presents when Yvonne was the one working double-shifts to ensure gifts for Christmas?

Then, there was the time when Octavia was six or seven, walking to the bus stop with her mother. Yvonne reprimanded Octavia when she tried to touch a hypodermic needle nestled in the grass, saying that it belonged to a doctor who must’ve dropped it. 

One day, Octavia’s grandmother calls from her home in Macon, Georgia. Yvonne lies to her mother, saying that the Atlanta Child Murders aren’t happening near the Fuller home. To change the subject, Yvonne tells her mother that Octavia’s report card had all A’s again. This, too, was a lie. Octavia had earned A’s, B’s, and C’s. 

When Yvonne gets off the phone, she asks her daughter why she looks so morose, wondering if Octavia is in trouble. Octavia insists that she isn’t, but her friend Rodney is. She tells Yvonne about the time Rodney’s father beat him in front of the fifth-grade class, to Yvonne’s surprise. Octavia thinks about how her own father isn’t around, which is a source of embarrassment for her, but how she’d feel even worse if she had a father like Rodney’s. 

That night, Yvonne leaves for her usual 11:00 pm to 7:00 am shift. Octavia goes to bed at 9:00 pm that night, but she doesn’t go to sleep. Then, after her mother leaves and locks the door behind her, Octavia gets up, goes to the living room, and watches TV. She turns on Channel Two to watch Monica Kaufman’s news report. Octavia watches Kaufman take a breath before she speaks, which indicates that someone else is dead. Just then, Octavia sees Kaufman announce the disappearance of Rodney Green—the 12th child to go missing. With Jashante, they knew before others that he was missing. Miss Viola, Jashante’s mother, had stopped by the Fuller apartment to ask if Yvonne or Octavia had seen him. Miss Viola hadn’t seen her son since he left for school that morning. The sight of Rodney on the TV screen, on the other hand, comes as a total shock to Octavia, who begins weeping. 

In the morning, Octavia examines the school clothes that her mother put out for her. She’s annoyed to find that they’re too short; her socks will show. Now, if her pants were too tight, her mother would throw them out right away. These short pants would cause everyone to start singing “Wade in the Water” when she walked into the classroom.

She walks to school with Delvis Watson. She tells him and his young siblings, Darlita and Donathan, about Rodney Green being missing. The knowledge disturbs the twins. Delvis ushers them along to school so that they can get breakfast and offers to buy Octavia a chocolate milk. On the way to school, they see a white man wearing a red beret. When Delvis asks who it is, Octavia says that the man is a Guardian Angel, from New York. Delvis wonders why they couldn’t send any black Guardian Angels. 

When they approach, the man asks the children if they’re okay. Delvis says that they are, but then asks if the group has any black members. The man ensures him that “[t]he Guardian Angels is a multiethnic organization” (162). There are plenty of Black Angels, he says. Delvis responds that he’d prefer saving from a black Guardian Angel. 

After arriving at the cafeteria and getting their breakfast, Delvis and Octavia go their separate ways. Delvis goes to sit with the sixth- and seventh-grade boys. Unsatisfied with the heavy bowl of grits served that morning, Octavia goes outside. She sees Mrs. Grier, whom she loves, and offers to help her carry something. Octavia once admitted her love for Mrs. Grier to her mother, who became jealous and asked Octavia if Mrs. Grier helped to put food on the table. Mrs. Grier opens her trunk and hands Octavia a spelling book to carry. 

Octavia follows Mrs. Grier into her second-grade classroom. Octavia squeezes into one of the desks, though her legs are too long. Mrs. Grier tells Octavia to move up one desk, which put Octavia into Rodney’s former chair. Mrs. Grier then walks over and asks Octavia what’s on her mind. Octavia struggles to figure out what she wants to say. As though she can sense what the child needs most, Mrs. Grier hugs her. Octavia finally asks if Mrs. Grier thinks that Rodney is dead. Mrs. Grier admits that she doesn’t know. She then asks Octavia if she walks home alone. Octavia assures her that she usually walks home with Delvis and the twins. She then asks if there are patrols in Octavia’s neighborhood. Octavia mentions the Guardian Angel that she saw that morning. She wishes that they had the Bat Patrollers instead, because at least they’re black. Mrs. Grier expresses skepticism over “angry men roaming the streets with baseball bats” (169) being able to protect anyone. She then tells Octavia to make sure that Delvis walks her to her door, but Octavia says that her mother is there when she gets home. Mrs. Grier is surprised that Mrs. Fuller doesn’t work. Octavia lies and says that her mother gets off of work before she finishes the school day. She lies out of fear that Mrs. Grier might call the State if she finds out that Octavia stays home alone at night. 

Mrs. Grier asks if Octavia has eaten breakfast. When she admits that she hasn’t, Mrs. Grier hands her a package of peanut butter crackers. She then leaves to go to her fifth-grade classroom. When Octavia walks in, she sees that a lot of people are absent. She wonders why Stanley Halliday is in the seat behind her—Rodney’s seat—and asks him. Her words come as a surprise to him, because they’ve never spoken to each other in the entire time that they’ve been attending school together. Stanley insists that she’s the one out of place. Then, Octavia realizes that Mr. Harrell has removed Rodney’s desk from their row. Mr. Harrell treating Rodney like he was never there bothers Octavia. 

Mr. Harrell then begins roll call. He skips Rodney’s name and moves to Stanley Halliday. Octavia swiftly turns in her chair and warns Stanley against responding. Mr. Harrell calls Stanley’s name again, and the boy eventually says, “Present.” Octavia feels the hatred well up in her—hatred for him and everyone in the class. After that, Octavia never said here ever again during roll call. Mr. Harrell eventually stopped calling her name. 

At recess, Octavia sits alone, reading a Judy Blume book. She reads the same books over and over again because she lost her library card after her mother refused to pay the 17-dollar book fine for a book that Octavia had dropped into the bathtub. Octavia hears someone call her name. It’s LaTasha Baxter, wearing “a fancy pink coat with fur around the hood and even this little fur pouch thing to keep her hands warm” (175-76). Octavia recalls seeing this outfit in the Sears catalog. Tasha doesn’t usually speak to Octavia, but she doesn’t make fun of her either. Tasha comes over to ask about Rodney, wondering if Octavia thinks they’ll find him. Octavia says no. Tasha then asks if anyone might find Jashante. With as much surety, Octavia says no. One of Tasha’s friends calls over to her. Octavia says that she should go back to join them. Before leaving, Tasha asks Octavia if she would tell her if she heard anything about either Rodney or Jashante. Octavia insists that Tasha wouldn’t need her for information; any updates about the boys would be on the news. Tasha walks away, looking hurt, but Octavia doesn’t care, knowing that Tasha wouldn’t care about her come lunchtime. 

That afternoon, when her mother isn’t home, the mailman knocks on the door. Octavia doesn’t want to open the door, though he needs a signature for a package. She tells him to slide the paper through the door. The package, which he leaves outside her door, has her name on it. When Octavia and her mother open the box, there are two long dresses inside—one white and the other blue velvet. 

Octavia asks her mother if she has ever been to Chicago. Yvonne says that she went once, shortly before she graduated from high school. Her aunt and uncle had promised her a bus ticket, and she intended to get a job at the phone company in the city. Yvonne and her mother prepared one morning to go into town to buy Yvonne a new hat. But, Yvonne got sick. Soon thereafter, she found out that she was pregnant with Octavia. Octavia isn’t satisfied with this answer. Her mother could have had her in Chicago, but Yvonne insists that her aunt and uncle never asked for her again.

After Yvonne leaves for work, the phone rings. It’s Uncle Kenny. Octavia is grateful to hear his voice and even more grateful to hear that he doesn’t sound angry with her, given that she thinks that she’s the one who got him kicked out of the apartment. He’s now living in Macon with Octavia’s grandmother. Octavia recalls how her mother confronted Uncle Kenny about his addiction, but lied and told him that Octavia cried after finding out that he used heroin. She also lied about kicking Kenny out of the house, saying that he returned to Macon.

Shortly after that call, Octavia gets her period. When it comes, she’s wearing a nice dress and realizes that her sanitary napkins are at home. She uses rolled-up toilet paper. She then makes her way to Mrs. Grier’s class. When she arrives, she sees Mrs. Grier giving a little boy a small plastic bag with his tooth inside. She advises him to put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. If, however, she doesn’t leave the boy anything, Mrs. Grier orders him to tell her in the morning, because the tooth fairy probably delivered the gift to Mrs. Grier instead. When she sees Octavia in the doorway, Octavia whispers that she got her period. Octavia also tells Mrs. Grier that she’s without supplies, prompting Mrs. Grier to retrieve some things from her cabinet, which she stuffs into a paper bag. She takes Octavia into the teacher’s lounge, reaches into the paper sack, and hands her a Kotex. She points Octavia toward the restroom. When Octavia comes out, Mrs. Grier asks if she has any questions. Octavia asks if she’ll “get some titties” (193). Mrs. Grier encourages Octavia to refer to her breasts as a “bosom.” She also tells her to refrain from saying “period,” in favor of “maturity.”

When Octavia leaves school, Delvis is leaning against the building, waiting to walk home. He asks where she’s been. Octavia lies and says that Mrs. Grier was helping her with her word problems. When he asks about what’s in her sack, she lies, saying that the cardboard boxes of Kotex are additional workbooks to help her practice. Delvis is annoyed about having had to wait for her, saying that his mother insists upon it. This makes no sense to him, because it’s mostly boys being kidnapped. Delvis tells her how his barber told him that the killer takes black boys because those boys will soon be men. The killer would never kill men, though, because white men are scared of black men. 

Octavia and Delvis walk home. They pass a neighborhood called the Bottom, which seemed to have “a liquor store every ten feet” (196). Delvis says that drunks are a disgrace to black people. He walks ahead of Octavia, saying that girls have it a lot easier. 

When Octavia gets home, she sees her mother and Miss Darlene shelling pecans. Her mother notices that she’s walking funny and asks her what’s wrong. Octavia announces that she’s gotten her “maturity,” which Miss Darlene deciphers as meaning that she got her period. Darlene warns Octavia that she must now be careful about boys, and that the last thing her mother needs is another child to take care of. Yvonne tells Darlene to leave. When she does, Yvonne turns to Octavia and tells her to take a bath so that they can go out to dinner.

Yvonne enters while Octavia is bathing, sits on the lid of the toilet seat, and asks if she has cramps. Octavia isn’t sure, not knowing what those feel like. Yvonne then goes on to say that Darlene did make a valid point when she advised Octavia to avoid boys. Yvonne warns that Octavia can now get pregnant. This seems absurd to Octavia, who says that she doesn’t “[mess] with boys like that” (202). 

After she freshens up, Octavia and her mother catch the 5:15 pm bus to Red Lobster—Octavia’s favorite restaurant. Octavia watches the lobsters swimming in the large tank at the front of the restaurant with their claws taped together. Octavia tells her mother that she feels sorry for them, but her mother assures her that no one at this Red Lobster can afford to eat them; they’ll live for a while. Octavia notices that she and her mother look nicer than any of the other patrons. Their waiter is young and handsome, with a voice that makes Octavia think of ice cream. Octavia orders popcorn shrimp and fries. When she finishes, Yvonne calls the waiter over to take the plates. She remarks to Octavia about how cute the waiter is. Just then, the waiter returns to their table with three other Red Lobster employees. The cute waiter announces to the restaurant that they have something to celebrate. Octavia, mortified, thinks that her mother told them about her getting her period. Instead, she finds out that Yvonne lied and said that it was her birthday so that Octavia could get free cake. There’s a candle stuck inside of a small white cupcake. Octavia closes her eyes, as though making a wish, though she can’t think of anything that she wants in that moment.

That night, after Yvonne goes to work, the phone rings. The voice on the line asks to speak to her mother. Octavia can tell that it’s the voice of a black man. The voice then announces himself as Ray, and asks if he’s speaking to Octavia. Octavia denies her own identity but takes the message for her mother to call him back. Ray is actually Octavia’s father, but she only sees him once a year. When she visits her grandmother in Macon, he comes to visit. Ray goes to Macon to visit his own mother. During one visit, he asked Octavia what grade she was in and if she liked school. Her grandmother handed Ray a glass of Kool-Aid but didn’t bring Octavia anything to drink. He also asked Octavia what she thought about having a little sister. The baby’s picture was on her grandmother’s coffee table. Her name was Kiyana and she was rather cute—as black as Octavia and Ray, but Octavia thought that the color looked better on the baby, just as it did on Ray. Octavia was the only one ill-suited to her color, she thought. 

Ray said that he’d like Kiyana and Octavia to get acquainted, but Octavia wasn’t sure how someone could do that with a baby. She called Ray, “sir,” and he told her that she could call him Ray, if she’d like. Ray then went out to his car to retrieve three shopping bags. He handed them to Octavia, who thanked him. 

Before he left, he kissed Octavia on the forehead. Old people in the neighborhood waved goodbye to him, calling him “Dr. Ray.” Octavia looked in the bags. She saw school supplies, and another bag filled with clothes that were too small for her. She and her mother later carried the clothes back to Rich’s, the store from which her father had bought them, and exchanged the garments for larger sizes. Octavia wanted to choose better colors, but Yvonne insisted that Octavia would have to wear the replicas of the clothes Ray had picked for her school pictures. When her grandmother examined the clothes, she assumed that Gloria, Ray’s new wife, had picked them out. She referred to Gloria as “quality” because she waited until she was married before having children. Octavia didn’t like what her grandmother was implying about her mother. 

Ray begins calling Octavia more frequently—three times each week. Octavia realizes that something strange is going on and decides to go to the park to think things over. She sits on a swing for someone much younger. She used to go to this park, which is beside her church, with Uncle Kenny when she was little. Octavia recalls how she saw Uncle Kenny two years before while riding the bus downtown with her mother to go to Downtown Rich’s. He was slumped against an old car, nodding off. Octavia pointed him out to her mother, who insisted that Kenny was in Macon. 

At Downtown Rich’s, a department store, they took the elevator to the roof so that Octavia could ride the Pink Pig—a roller coaster put up around Christmas time which rides around a giant tree. She gave the white man in charge of the ride a ticket, which she got at school for having perfect attendance. He fastened Octavia in. Just before the ride took off, a white boy also came up with a perfect attendance ticket. The white man looked at the empty seat beside Octavia and told the boy to wait for the next trip. 

The roller coaster climbed to the top of the track. From the car, Octavia could see the entire city. When she came back down, her mother asked if she wanted to ride again. Yvonne mentioned how there was no store like Rich’s in Macon, where she grew up. Even if there had been, black children wouldn’t have been able to ride anyway. They couldn’t even use the toilets in town, she recalled. Bemused, Yvonne told Octavia that, now that black people can get on these rides, she’s too old. She then asked Octavia if she’d like to ride again, as though her daughter would be doing her a personal favor. Octavia obliged. 

Now, at the park, Octavia swings high, as though she were trying to get as high as that roller coaster at Rich’s. A man walks by who resembles her uncle and she calls out Kenny’s name. She calls out again, as she goes flying to the ground. Her face hits the concrete, causing her to bust her lip open. The man, who is a stranger, stands and looks at her, but he doesn’t move. Octavia gets up and runs down the hill toward home. 

When she gets to the front of her house, Donathan and Darlita are there and warn her that she’s in trouble. Delvis then comes and says that Yvonne was looking for her. Octavia goes up to her apartment. Her mother is on the telephone, which she hangs up. She asks where Octavia was. Octavia tells her that she was at the park. Yvonne then wonders what happened to Octavia’s face. Octavia says that she fell. Yvonne then starts shaking her, telling Octavia never to go off somewhere without anyone knowing where she is. She then, for the first time, hits Octavia. Yvonne continues shaking her daughter and hitting her. Then, Miss Darlene comes in and tries to stop her. Seeing Octavia’s face, she warns Yvonne that someone could call the county on her. Octavia tells Darlene that she hurt her lip previously in the park. After Darlene leaves, Octavia watches her mother cry. When the phone rings, Octavia answers; it’s her grandmother. Octavia lies to her and says that she was staying late at school doing extra work. Her grandmother says that Yvonne’s worry over something so innocent is why she needs to leave Atlanta. When her grandmother asks to talk to her own daughter, Octavia lies and says that her mother is in the bathroom. Octavia then thinks about how often she and her mother lie to her grandmother. 

Octavia goes into the bathroom to wash the blood off of her face. When she returns, her mother reaches out a hand to touch her face, but Octavia tells her mother not to touch her because her face is still sore. She then reminds her mother about her rule of not hitting children and asks why Yvonne wouldn’t let her tell her side of the story. Just then, Octavia begins to cry. 

The next day, when Octavia goes home from school, she sees that her mother has put up the Christmas tree. Octavia is disappointed and mentions to her mother that she would have liked to help put up the tree. Her mother invites her to sit down. She mentions that Ray called and has invited Octavia to live with him in South Carolina—at least until the child murders end. Octavia reasons that it’s mostly boys in danger. She also wants to stay so that she can find out what happened to Rodney. Yvonne says that she’ll call Octavia if there’s news. 

Octavia doesn’t want to live with Ray. She doesn’t know him. She offers to live in Macon with her grandmother instead. Yvonne nixes this idea right away, insisting that Octavia won’t do anything but sit in church all day. Besides, “nothing good [happens] in Macon, Georgia” (226). She tells Octavia that Ray left Macon as soon as they both graduated from high school. He went to college. At first, he sent letters with the money orders that he provided Yvonne for child support. Then, the money orders arrived with no note. 

Yvonne impresses on Octavia that she wants her daughter to benefit from the privileges and opportunities that Ray and Gloria can offer. That night, Yvonne goes to work, and Octavia gets angry. She feels angry enough to throw things. She sees an ornament on the floor and crushes it with her bare foot, inadvertently stabbing herself with a piece of blue glass. She limps to the bathroom “to tend to the wound [she can] see” (230). 

On the last day of school before Christmas break, Octavia visits Mrs. Grier, who smiles and wishes Octavia a merry Christmas. Octavia tells Mrs. Grier about her mother sending her to Orangeburg, South Carolina to live with her father. Mrs. Grier thinks it’s a great opportunity. She then invites Octavia to sit and listen to a story about her childhood. Before she speaks, she hands Octavia a piece of chocolate wrapped in foil. 

She describes how she grew up the daughter of sharecroppers in Sugarloaf, Alabama, one of 12 children. While she speaks, Octavia offers to clean the blackboard. Mrs. Grier accepts her offer and continues her story. She says that her mother had unique ways of describing how she loved her children. To Mrs. Grier, she said that she loved her “like a bunch of grapes” (232). Mrs. Grier never tasted grapes until she got to college—fat, dark ones that a roommate had bought her from a farmer’s market. Biting into both the fruit’s sweet juice and its bitter seed gave Mrs. Grier some idea of what her mother meant when she compared her to a grape. She asks Octavia if she understands. Octavia lies and says that she does. 

Mrs. Grier goes on and explains how her father—a race man—walked to a black-owned store in Troy. One day during that trip, someone knocked him and his cart off the road. He fell in a ditch and drowned in a small pool of water. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Grier’s mother put down her sack of cotton, complaining of a headache. She laid down under a magnolia tree and died. Mrs. Grier went to live with her Aunt Lee and Uncle James. She had never been in a car before. 

At her aunt and uncle’s house in Atlanta, she shared a room with her cousin, Twyla. Accustomed to sharing a bed with numerous other children, Mrs. Grier climbed into bed with her cousin. Twyla then pointed to a twin bed on the other side of the room. Initially lonely, Mrs. Grier fell asleep, enjoying the extra room that she had in the bed. After a year in Atlanta, she hardly ever thought about Sugarloaf. Her older sister Livonia came to visit four years later, and she didn’t know her. Livonia still lived on the plantation. Before going back, she hugged Mrs. Grier and told her that she loved her—“[l]ike a bunch of grapes” (236). Mrs. Grier says that she never saw her sister again. Octavia asks what happened to her. Mrs. Grier says that Livonia stepped on a rusty nail, got tetanus, and died of lockjaw. 

At her aunt and uncle’s house, Mrs. Grier made herself useful—washing and ironing clothes, for example. She remembered how everyone at school admired Twyla’s clothes, when it was Mrs. Grier who ironed them and who burned her fingers from the curling irons that she used to set Twyla’s hair. She emphasizes to Octavia that she made herself useful, which brought her good fortune. While she doesn’t think that Octavia should turn herself into a maid, she should be willing to earn her keep. This, she says, would obligate them to fund her education. Mrs. Grier notes that she didn’t go to Spelman, like Twyla; she attended Fort Valley State, got her teaching certificate, and married a hard-working man. Her point, she says, is that when you’re poor, you can’t always choose what you want. Octavia wants to tell Mrs. Grier that she and her mother aren’t poor and don’t live in the projects. But, Mrs. Grier gathers her belongings and tells Octavia that she’ll drive her home. 

When she drops Octavia off at home, Mrs. Grier reminds her to think about what she said. When Octavia gets in, she sees that her mother is asleep. Yvonne awakens when she hears that Octavia is home and asks her daughter to heat water in the tea kettle for her. Yvonne tells her to go get her pink dress so that she can pin it properly before she sews it. Octavia wonders why she’ll need to take her pink dress and so many other clothes. Yvonne tells her that she wants Ray and Gloria to know that Octavia already has some nice things. Octavia asks if she can go visit Delvis beforehand. Her mother agrees but warns Octavia to return before the streetlights come on.

Octavia walks to his building. Delvis opens the door before she even knocks and invites her inside to watch something on TV. The television is on low because Delvis doesn’t want to twins to overhear. The news report says that police found a body in Decatur. Then, Rodney Green’s name appears as soon as they show his photo. Octavia begins crying. Delvis asks if she’ll go to the funeral before she leaves for South Carolina. Octavia is surprised that Delvis knows and wonders, too loudly, why he didn’t say something. Irritated, Delvis tells her that he was only trying to avoid calling out her lie—she’s the one who never told him. 

Yvonne goes to Rodney Green’s wake but insists that Octavia not go because wakes, she thinks, aren’t for children. Octavia says that her mother should tell that to Rodney. Yvonne has already taken down the Christmas tree. After Yvonne leaves, Octavia’s grandmother calls. Octavia tells her that Yvonne is at the wake of someone who was her friend at school. She also tells her grandmother how her neighbor, Jashante, is dead, too. Once Octavia begins revealing these truths, she reveals more, including how kids ostracize her at school and how Kenny “used to kiss [her] too hard” (246). The last comment gets her grandmother’s attention, but Octavia says that she has to go. She feels better and tells her grandmother that her mom will call her back later. 

Yvonne returns from the wake at 9:00 pm. She goes into Octavia’s room and kisses her daughter’s face. Octavia, who is pretending to sleep, opens her eyes. She knows that her mother is crying. She makes room in her bed for her mother to lie with her. Her mother begins crying loudly, “like she was the one who knew Rodney Green” (248). An hour later, Yvonne rises, changes clothes, and goes to work, but not before kissing Octavia again before leaving. 

On the day that she leaves Atlanta, Octavia sees her picture in the newspaper. The picture is from Rodney’s funeral. There’s also a picture of Rodney’s mother, who reminds Octavia of Coretta Scott King. Octavia asks her mother if Mrs. Green was crying. Yvonne insists that she wasn’t crying. She was “too busy trying to be Jackie Kennedy” (249). Yvonne tells Octavia that when a woman’s husband dies and she doesn’t cry, that’s a show of strength; but when her child dies and she doesn’t cry, that’s a problem. She explains that losing a child is like losing your sight or your mind. Octavia mentions Miss Viola and wonders if it’s the same thing. Her mother says that it is. 

The funeral was the first place where Octavia had ever heard a room full of people cry. Miss Viola was there, too, calling out to Jesus. Then, she hollered and cursed at him, while heaving herself forward. The other women from the neighborhood crowded around her while Miss Viola’s daughters reached out to each other. Yvonne pressed Octavia close to her, as though protecting her from a nearby danger. Octavia whispered to her mother, asking her to allow her to stay in Atlanta. Yvonne said no, that she couldn’t do that. Octavia felt her mother’s tears drip into her “freshly pressed hair” (252).

That day, Octavia wears her blue dress. Her mother assures her that she’ll be all right, and to remember that Ray is her father. Yvonne and Octavia then go outside to wait for their taxi. Yvonne tells Octavia how pretty she looks but says that she needs one more thing. With that, she dabs a bit of perfume on her neck and wrists. Octavia now smells like her mother. She begins to cry. Yvonne tells Octavia that she loves her, but Octavia feels that this is a lie. She turns her face away from her mother and looks for the taxi, which she doesn’t see. Octavia thinks of how she’s not like Mrs. Grier, who needed only “a car trip and a [sic] eyelet pillowcase” (256) to forget home. Octavia knows that she’ll miss her mother for the rest of her life.