"Then we better make tracks."Baby Suggs kissed her on the mouth and refused to let her see the children. They were asleep shesaid and Sethe was too uglylooking to wake them in the night. She took the newborn and handed itto a young woman in a bonnet, telling her not to clean the eyes till she got the mother's urine.

　　"Has it cried out yet?" asked Baby.

　　"A little.""Time enough. Let's get the mother well."She led Sethe to the keeping room and, by the light of a spirit lamp, bathed her in sections, startingwith her face. Then, while waiting for another pan of heated water, she sat next to her and stitchedgray cotton. Sethe dozed and woke to the washing of her hands and arms. After each bathing, Babycovered her with a quilt and put another pan on in the kitchen. Tearing sheets, stitching the graycotton, she supervised the woman in the bonnet who tended the baby and cried into her cooking.

　　When Sethe's legs were done, Baby looked at her feet and wiped them lightly. She cleanedbetween Sethe's legs with two separate pans of hot water and then tied her stomach and vaginawith sheets. Finally she attacked the unrecognizable feet.

　　"You feel this?""Feel what?" asked Sethe.

　　"Nothing. Heave up." She helped Sethe to a rocker and lowered her feet into a bucket of salt waterand juniper. The rest of the night Sethe sat soaking. The crust from her nipples Baby softened withlard and then washed away. By dawn the silent baby woke and took her mother's milk.

　　"Pray God it ain't turned bad," said Baby. "And when you through, call me." As she turned to go,Baby Suggs caught a glimpse of something dark on the bed sheet. She frowned and looked at herdaughter-in-law bending toward the baby. Roses of blood blossomed in the blanket coveringSethe's shoulders. Baby Suggs hid her mouth with her hand. When the nursing was over and thenewborn was asleep — its eyes half open, its tongue dream-sucking — wordlessly the olderwoman greased the flowering back and pinned a double thickness of cloth to the inside of thenewly stitched dress.

　　It was not real yet. Not yet. But when her sleepy boys and crawl ing-already? girl were brought in,it didn't matter whether it was real or not. Sethe lay in bed under, around, over, among butespecially with them all. The little girl dribbled clear spit into her face, and Sethe's laugh of delightwas so loud the crawling-already? baby blinked. Buglar and Howard played with her ugly feet,after daring each other to be the first to touch them. She kept kissing them. She kissed the backs oftheir necks, the tops of their heads and the centers of their palms, and it was the boys who decidedenough was enough whenshe liked their shirts to kiss their tight round bellies. She stopped when and because they said,"Pappie come?"She didn't cry. She said "soon" and smiled so they would think the brightness in her eyes was lovealone. It was some time before she let Baby Suggs shoo the boys away so Sethe could put on thegray cotton dress her mother-in-law had started stitching together the night before. Finally she layback and cradled the crawling already ? girl in her arms. She enclosed her left nipple with twofingers of her right hand and the child opened her mouth. They hit home together.

　　Baby Suggs came in and laughed at them, telling Sethe how strong the baby girl was, how smart,already crawling. Then she stooped to gather up the ball of rags that had been Sethe's clothes.

　　"Nothing worth saving in here," she said.

　　Sethe liked her eyes. "Wait," she called. "Look and see if there's something still knotted up in thepetticoat."Baby Suggs inched the spoiled fabric through her fingers and came upon what felt like pebbles.

　　She held them out toward Sethe. "Going away present?""Wedding present.""Be nice if there was a groom to go with it." She gazed into her hand. "What you think happenedto him?""I don't know," said Sethe. "He wasn't where he said to meet him at. I had to get out. Had to."Sethe watched the drowsy eyes of the sucking girl for a moment then looked at Baby Suggs' face.

　　"He'll make it. If I made it, Halle sure can.""Well, put these on. Maybe they'll light his way." Convinced her son was dead, she handed thestones to Sethe.

　　"I need holes in my ears.""I'll do it," said Baby Suggs. "Soon's you up to it."Sethe jingled the earrings for the pleasure of the crawling-already? girl, who reached for them overand over again.

　　In the Clearing, Sethe found Baby's old preaching rock and remembered the smell of leavessimmering in the sun, thunderous feet and the shouts that ripped pods off the limbs of thechestnuts. With Baby Suggs' heart in charge, the people let go.

　　Sethe had had twenty-eight days — the travel of one whole moon — of unslaved life. From thepure clear stream of spit that the little girl dribbled into her face to her oily blood was twenty-eightdays. Days of healing, ease and real-talk. Days of company: knowing the names of forty, fiftyother Negroes, their views, habits; where they had been and what done; of feeling their fun andsorrow along with her own, which made it better. One taught her the alphabet; another a stitch. Alltaught her how it felt to wake up at dawn and decide what to do with the day. That's how she gotthrough the waiting for Halle. Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with the others, she hadclaimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

　　Now she sat on Baby Suggs' rock, Denver and Beloved watch............