How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
July 1, 1964, I lay in bed waiting for the bees to show up, thinking of what Rosaleen had said when I told her about their nightly visitations.
'Bees swarm before death,' she'd said (1.5).
Bees swarm before death? We've never heard that one before. Yikes. Lily claims that bees have been visiting her room nightly and swarming, so she's wondering if what Rosaleen said is true. Of course, she already spends a lot of time ruminating on death because she thinks about her late mother often.
Quote #2
That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise. I would meet her saying, 'Mother, forgive. Please forgive,' and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years (1.8).
Lily's thoughts about death in the wake of the bee invasion definitely suggest that her obsession with death is linked to her mama drama. She carries around a lot of guilt for her role in her mother's accidental shooting and, since her father isn't the warmest of dudes, she seems to view the idea of joining her mother in "paradise" as at least somewhat appealing.
Quote #3
Time folded in on itself then. What is left lies in clear yet disjointed pieces on my head. The gun shining like a toy in her hand, how he snatched it away and waved it around. The gun on the floor. Bending to pick it up. The noise that exploded around us.
This is what I know about myself. She was all I wanted. And I took her away (1.48).
Later in that first chapter, Lily offers her fragmented memories of the moment she lost her mother. Not only does she have to deal with that loss, but she also she has to live knowing that she caused it. That's quite the load to bear, if you ask us.