sethe had had twenty-eight days—the travel of one whole moon—of unslaved life. from the pure clear stream of spit that the little girl dribbled into her face to her oily blood was twenty-eight days. days of healing, ease and real-talk. days of company: knowing the names of forty, fifty other negroes, their views, habits; where they had been and what done; of feeling their fun and sorrow along with her own, which made it better