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 watching her from the trees. There willnever be a day, she thought, when Halle will knock on the door. Not knowing it was hard; knowingit was harder. Just the fingers, she thought. Just let me feel your fingers again on the back of my neck and I willlay it all down, make a way out of this no way. Sethe bowed her head and sure enough — theywere there. Lighter now, no more than the strokes of bird feather, but unmistakably caressingfingers. She had to relax a bit to let them do their work, so light was the touch, childlike almost,more finger kiss than kneading. Still she was grateful for the effort; Baby Suggs' long distance lovewas equal to any skin-close love she had known. The desire, let alone the gesture, to meet herneeds was good enough to lift her spirits to the place where she could take the next step: ask forsome clarifying word; some advice about how to keep on with a brain greedy for news nobodycould live with in a world happy to provide it. She knew Paul D was adding something to her life — something she wanted to count on but wasscared to. Now he had added more: new pictures and old rememories that broke her heart. Into the empty space of not knowing about Halle — -a space sometimes colored with righteous resentmentat what could have been his cowardice, or stupidity or bad luck — that empty place of no definitenews was filled now with a brand-new sorrow and who could tell how many more on the way. Years ago — when 124 was alive — she had women friends, men friends from all around to sharegrief with. Then there was no one, for they would not visit her while the baby ghost filled thehouse, and she returned their disapproval with the potent pride of the mistreated. But now therewas someone to share it, and he had beat the spirit away the very day he entered her house and nosign of it since. A blessing, but in its place he brought another kind of haunting: Halle's facesmeared with butter and the dabber too; his own mouth jammed full of iron.padding-bottom: 75%;"> 在"林間空地"上，塞絲找到了從前貝比訓衆的那塊石頭，記起了陽光中蒸騰的樹葉的氣味、雷鳴般的腳步聲，以及把莢果扯下七葉樹枝的吶喊。在貝比·薩格斯的心靈的率領下，人們盡情發泄。 塞絲度過了二十八天——整整一輪月缺月圓——的非奴隸生活。從小女孩滴在她臉上的純淨透明的口水，到她的油膩的血，一共是二十八天，是痊癒、輕鬆和真心交談的日子，是交朋會友的日子：她知道了四五十個其他黑人的名字，瞭解他們的看法、習慣，他們待過的地方、幹過的事；體驗他們的甘苦，聊以撫慰自己的創痛。一個人教了她字母表；另一個教她做針線。大家一起教她體會黎明時醒來並決定這一天干些什麼的滋味。這樣，她熬過了等待黑爾的時光。一點一點地，在124號和"林間空地"上，同大家在一起，她贏得了自我。解放自我是一回事；贏得那個解放了的自我的所有權卻是另一回事。 此刻，她坐在貝比·薩格斯的石頭上，丹芙和寵兒從樹林裏望着她。再不會有那一天了，她想，黑爾永遠不會來敲門了。不知道的時候很苦；知道了更苦。 只要手指，她心中暗道。只要讓我再次感覺到你的手指按住我的脖子後面，我就會全部放下，從這絕境中闢出一條路來。塞絲低下頭，可以肯定——它們來了。如今更輕了，比鳥羽的撫摸更輕，但絕對是愛撫的手指。她得放鬆一點，讓它們撫摸，輕而又輕地撫摸，幾乎是孩子的動作，不是在揉，而是在用手指親吻。不過她仍然感激她的努力；貝比·薩格斯遙遠的愛可以同她所知的一切切膚之愛相媲美。不用說手上的動作，單是那試圖滿足她要求的願望，就足以把她的靈魂升到一個地方，使她能夠接着走下一步：請求一些澄清真相的話語；請求一些建議，告訴她怎樣才能跟上一個貪戀消息的大腦。這個世界最樂於提供這種令人忍無可忍的消息了。 她知道保羅·D在給她的生活增加某種東西——某種她想信任又怕信任的東西。現在他又增加了更多的東西：令她心碎的新的畫面和舊的記憶。將它們加進對黑爾一無所知的空白——這空白有時會染上一種理所當然的怨恨，也許是針對他的懦弱、愚蠢，也許是針對他的倒黴——這沒有確切消息來充實的空白，現在充滿了一種嶄新的悲傷，誰又說得出還會有多少悲傷即將來臨呢。多年以前——那時124號仍舊生氣勃勃——曾經有來自四面八方的女友、男友，來幫她分擔悲傷。然後就一個也沒有了，因爲他們不願意到一個小鬼魂肆虐的房子裏來看她，而她也以受虐者強烈的驕傲回敬大家的不滿。可是現在又有個人來分擔了，而且他剛走進大門那天，鬼魂就被他趕跑了，至今仍無影無蹤。這本是一種賜福，然而他取代了它的位置，又帶來了另一種糾纏：黑爾塗滿牛油和酸酪的臉，他自己勒着鐵嚼子的嘴；天知道，願意的話，他還會告訴她些什麼。
