Small Mercies

by Dennis Lehane

They aren’t poor because they don’t try hard, don’t work hard, aren’t deserving of better things.

They’re poor because there’s a limited amount of good luck in this world, and they’ve never been given any.

In that moment, Mary Pat feels a kinship with black people that surprises her. Aren’t they all victims of the same thing? Aren’t they all being told How It Is?

She can’t blame the coloreds for wanting to escape their shithole, but trading it for her shithole makes no sense.

keep us fighting among ourselves like dogs for table scraps so we won’t catch them making off with the feast.

But he knew they were really dead because they were in the way. Of profit. Of philosophy. Of a worldview that said rules apply only to the people who aren’t in charge of making them.

I’m not a person anymore, Bobby. I’m a testament.”