Parable of the Sower

by Octavia E. Butler

I had gotten to like her, even though she was a pest.

if everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain?

Kayla is from Texas like my biological mother. Sometimes she sounded as though she’d never left, and sometimes she sounded as though she’d never been near any part of the south. She seemed to be able to turn the accent on and off. She tended to turn it on for comforting people, and for threatening to kill them.