"River of Names"
This story is told by the main character of the story. It is about a woman who clearly had quite the troubled childhood where the the children were a dime a dozen and beaten, raped, and killed. She was born sort of in between generations of children and therefore seeing everything from an outside perspective. She was also a lesbian which meant she would not bear any more children to the family. Basically, she was different from the rest, although she was not treated any differently.
Quotes such as "We were so many we were without a number and, like tadpoles, if there was one less from time to time, who counted?" and "They did and were not missed" really shows how children weren't really cared for. Essentially every one of the children had their troubled childhoods boil over into their adulthood. "Jack was sent to prison. When he came out, he married and woman and had three children, then one day came home and beat them all to death. Cousin Melvina had three children with one husband. He left and she lost the children to welfare. He three more and lost those too.
The main character never told her girlfriend about exactly how troubled her past was. To her girlfriend, Jesse, she just had a weird fascination for violence. She always tried so hard to not become like everyone in her family and never said a word about it. The name of the story finally makes sense she she says "Ive got a dust of river in my head, a river of names endlessly repeating. That dirty water rises in me, all those children screaming out their lives in my memory, as I become someone else, someone I have tried so hard not to be." Realizing she could not go on with her relationship the way she has been, she cracks and tells her girlfriend the truth.
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