Love by TONI MORRISON

"The day she walked the streets of Silk, a chafing wind kept the temperature low and the sun was helpless to move outdoor thermometers more than a few degrees above freezing. Tiles of ice had formed at the shoreline and, inland, the thrown-together houses on Monarch Street whined like puppies. Ice slick gleamed then disappeared in the early evening shadow, causing the sidewalks she marched along to undermine even an agile tread, let alone one with a faint limp."

"It was a boy who succeeded at befriending her. The teachers thought it was because he fed her Yodels and Sno Balls from his lunch bag, since Junior's lunch(Junior is a girl) might be a single apple or a mayonnaise sandwich stuffed in the pocket of the woman's sweater she wore. The pupils, however, believed he was playing dirty with her down in a ditch somewhere after school--and they told him so. But he was a proud boy, son of the bottling plant manager, who could hire and fire their parents--and he told them so."