Where Sleeping Girls Lie

by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

With Where Sleeping Girls Lie, I write to young girls who feel so much anger, and need desperately for someone or something to tell them their rage is important, and that the capacity to heal from deep wounds is not at all impossible.

“It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place too. Fire and brimstone all right, but hidden in lacy gloves.” —Beloved, Toni Morrison

Sade had read up on the school’s houses. All eight of them: Curie, Einstein, Hawking, Mendel, Franklin, Turing, Jemison, and Seacole.

Sade had read up on Turing House briefly. It had been described as the house for the jack-of-all-traders, students with no particular special interest in any one subject; sister house to Seacole; and unlike most of the other houses, Turing had produced the least famous alumni.

Not all her feelings reflected reality and not everyone needed saving. As they walked out

“They say terrible things are done in darkness, but terrible things are also done in a light too