Summary

In present tense narration, Tish describes how intensely the baby kicks, and how it seems to be running her life – telling her what to eat, telling her to throw it back up; and reshaping her body, giving her breasts and a behind where she had had none. She also describes how she and the baby seem to be making peace with each other, even as the baby seems, to Tish, to be fighting to get out. Tish also describes how Ernestine and Joseph take care of her, in Sharon’s absence, and how Joseph sits her down one morning, telling her that it is time to quit her job. She, he says, has to take care of Fonny, and she has to take care of the baby, and she has to take care of herself; those...