"I was hungry," she told Denver, "just as hungry as I could be for his eyes. I couldn't wait."So she raised up on her elbow and dragged herself, one pull, two, three, four, toward the youngwhite voice talking about "Who that back in there?"" 'Come see,' I was thinking. 'Be the last thing you behold,' and sure enough here come the feet so Ithought well that's where I'll have to start God do what He would, I'm gonna eat his feet off. I'mlaughing now, but it's true. I wasn't just set to do it. I was hungry to do it. Like a snake. All jawsand hungry.
"It wasn't no whiteboy at all. Was a girl. The raggediest-lookingtrash you ever saw saying, 'Look there. A nigger. If that don't beat all.' "And now the part Denver loved the best: Her name was Amy and she needed beef and pot liquorlike nobody in this world. Arms like cane stalks and enough hair for four or five heads. Slow-moving eyes. She didn't look at anything quick. Talked so much it wasn't clear how she couldbreathe at the same time. And those cane-stalk arms, as it turned out, were as strong as iron.
"You 'bout the scariest-looking something I ever seen. What you doing back up in here?"Down in the grass, like the snake she believed she was, Sethe opened her mouth, and instead offangs and a split tongue, out shot the truth.