Summary

In “Tongues,” 17-year-old Zeyah (“Zey”) sits in history class reading her teacher's word-of-the-day calendar. She sees the word “luciferous” (34) and asks her teacher how a word with the devil's name in it could mean “light.” The teacher tells her, “There are all kinds of things 'they' don't want you to know” (34). On Sunday, Zey attends church with her parents and her younger brother, Duck. She watches as congregants speak in tongues. The pastor tells the congregation to bow their heads and pray. Only Zey keeps her eyes open and she makes eye contact with the pastor. Soon after, the pastor invites Zey to his office and lectures her about knowing her place as a woman. All the while, Zey is thinking about what she has learned in history class—about “slave ships and witch trials and women kept in...