Yonder Quotes

“Will this ever be over?" "In time. When the Thieves find something else worth stealing." "And then what?" "They'll tell the Stolen that they dreamed it all up. That the worst things never happened.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I did infer, however, that submitting to melancholy would undo the labors of those who had come before me, that I had an obligation to resist instead of giving in. I rose unsteadily to my feet, aware of my shackles, but determined to somehow overcome them.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I wanted to belong to Iris when I didn't even belong to myself.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Have you chosen your new name?”
“I have a notion. How about you?”
“I’m thinking on it but I haven’t settled. Tell me yours.”
I reached for his hand, laced his fingers in mine. “As you said, it’s too soon,” I
told him. “Not until freedom. Then we tell.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“He heard a furious rustling, a
disturbance in the trees. He followed Zander’s final glance and saw the angel frozen in mid-air, outside of time. Then the rapid descent.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Unwinding the white strips from our bodies, we let our sadness float to the ground. Women kicked their heels above their heads. Men twisted and flexed. In a whirl of laughter, wild notes, and hallelujahs, we shook and cried. Cried and shook. The fiddlers took up their instruments again and committed to furious bowing, sawing at the strings in a frenzy.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“She looked up and saw, crouching on a branch, a creature from another world.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I had thought of my Ancestors as ancient, with a history of torment etched on their weathered faces. But these were children, ranging in age from five harvests to fifteen, with gleaming faces and vigorous frames. I didn’t understand their youth. I understood only that they had been in the world before I came to it, and that they now belonged to some other place.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“A baby fortunate to survive long enough to acquire the gift of speech learned quickly about the world into which she was born. There was likelihood she would never have a chance to use such words as “mother” or “father.” Instead she would learn terms like “Stolen” and “Thief” right after she learned her own name. But no matter the circumstances and through a process none of us could explain, she would always remember the seven words whispered in her ear.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Though Mary could not speak she had learned to endow her gestures with great meaning. Every raised eyebrow and curled lip conveyed precise instructions, from take care with the salt to add more wood to the fire. Planters from farms throughout the county sent their Stolen cooks to study and practice under her knowing gaze. Watching her preside over her smoky cookhouse was akin to watching an elaborate dance. The Thieves, with their reels
and waltzes, couldn’t begin to match the majestic grace of Silent Mary and her acolytes as they moved about her tiny space, conjuring tasty confections from the smoke and flames.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I resolved to die. When that proved futile, I joined the ranks of the sullen. My condition was not uncommon among men and women in our predicament. We moved as if lost in dreams, we ate without tasting, slept without resting, listened without hearing. Others avoided us for fear of catching our ailment because they knew that not caring meant not living and they had chosen to live.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Waking quickly, I leapt to the ground and looked directly into the eyes of the Savage. He looked entirely different, calm somehow; all traces of lunacy had vanished from his expression. His mouth, usually slack and oblivious to the ever-present flies, had formed a sly smile, his lips curved and tight with purpose. These he opened and uttered the first word I’d ever heard him speak. “Run,” he said. “Run.” I had seconds to obey him before flames devoured the entire conveyance.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“In a clearing, we began a ring shout by linking hands and marching counterclockwise, each step taking us back to a time before Thieves, before abduction and the routine infliction of wicked depravities. To a time before we were Stolen, when our ancestors walked with us and anything was possible. With the accompaniment of tapping sticks and the humming of sacred sounds, we raised our hands high. “Brethren, Sistren,” I urged, “let us be who we are.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“The tales Stolen men and women handed down to their children included the adventures of Buba Yalis, or flying Africans. According to the stories, certain Stolen had been gifted with the power of flight. After chanting buba yali and other phrases now forgotten, they rose above their misery and flew back to our homeland. Others could do the same, the story went, if only they could remember the magic words.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“A Stolen child born in 1852 entered a world in which atrocities were commonplace. Whispering over her might have seemed faint protection, a parlor trick at best. Still, words were all that many of us had to offer, so we gathered faithfully to pour them into her innocent ears.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Hell is something Thieves made up, son. Careful or you’ll take on all their
foolishness. You don’t belong to them unless you think this life is yours for all eternity. Part of you has been stolen, yes. But part of you is free as long as you can dream of something else. When you give that up, you’re theirs for true. Remember son, we come from Strong.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“The gods began the world in seven days,” he said, “but everyone knows they didn’t complete it. They left parts of it undone for people to build themselves. Therefore the world is never done; it is always a work in progress. See that leaf on that tree out there? It wasn’t there yesterday. So that isn’t the same tree. You’re brand new too. Every day.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“He didn’t believe in God. He believed in gods. He found no other way to explain the many different ways of seeing the world; how, for instance, some observers saw people where others saw mere things. How Thieves thought that they alone had souls inside them when it was clear that everyone — and everything — did.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“There is no reward in tenderness, Nila. There are no gods and nothing to believe in but the burn of summer, the bite of winter and the strength of my own two hands. Only fools would dare to ignore the truth of the world as it is. I’m no fool.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I haven’t been but a day and a half from Greene’s farms since they brought me here seven harvests ago. But I don’t have to go anywhere to be certain that the land I sweat on is no different from any other. Nobody needs a map to know that there’s nothing over yonder but more blood.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“To me death was not the spectacle it might have been in some other circumstance, in some other place. It was not something to get used to but something to expect, like hunger, loneliness, and the cruelty of Thieves. You could not let it shake you.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Pandora often walked around like she was in a fog of confusion, seeming to move through the world without taking notice of anything. Then she would surprise you by proving she’d been studying things all along.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Civility. Even now I marvel at the notion.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“In the quarters, our story of Swing Low was far different from the one Thieves
were fond of telling. Our version told of an avenging angel who suddenly appeared in the middle of the night to free us from our captivity and lead us to friendlier climes. But that version was always recited softly, lest it land in the wrong ears.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“When morning came, Cupid always stepped outside first, and woe betide us if he found anyone still sleeping. He was tall and strong, and he had a scowl to match. His skin was the color of toasted cornmeal and freckles dusted the bridge of his nose like spatters of blood.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Isaac and Oney used to love so loud that everybody grumbled. Folks were amazed that they could get up and toil after all that tussling and giggling. Seemed like they didn’t sleep at all and yet they rose up smiling.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I have often wondered what force sent that horse galloping into my path. Though I have little patience with divine engines and other fanciful notions, I can’t help but question how that simple beast found me and sent my life spinning in a new direction.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Others who have written on the Age of Thievery and even some diarists who lived through it have opined that the Stolen could seldom tell one Thief from another, that to us they all looked and smelled alike. Here I must call that assertion false. Our survival depended on discerning their thoughts and remaining a step in advance whenever possible. Accordingly, knowing the subtle distinctions between them was a matter of life or death, and so we studied them with care, often committing their faces, gestures and scents to memory.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Our language, our secret tongue, was our last defense.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Again and again words failed to save us. Still, as unreliable as they seemed, they were often all we had. Without words of our own we’d have no choice but to see the world as they saw it. And even though we witnessed life unfold through very different eyes we shared with our captors a need to believe that names could affect the turn of events.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder