Still my heart is rain for him, my brother dead of posies little.
-- Ice Cream (Chapter 1 paragraph 1)

Importance: Ice Cream Star begins her story by introducing herself and briefly describing her family. Her description of her brother, Mo-Jacque Five Star, reveals that he died of an early onset of posies, “posies little,” a disease that kills Sengles by the age of twenty-one.

Soon my nerves go jittery self. Somebody going to die –yo sho, somebody always going to die.
-- Ice Cream (Chapter 1 paragraph 16)

Importance: Early in the novel, Ice Cream, her brother, and several others raid old abandoned homes to scavenge supplies. Among the things they discover is a baby doll, a symbolic omen of death for the Sengles. Even the very realistic Ice Cream is disturbed by this. She does her best to remind herself that people die all the time. Still, she cannot convince herself. The doll proves to be a symbolic omen of bad events.

This be...
-- Ice Cream (Chapter 3 paragraph 28)