Eraser Tattoo

“Moments later, another truck pulled up to the same spot—a replacement. Double-parked, killed the engine, toggled the emergency blinkers, rolled the windows up until there was only a sliver of space for air to slip through.”

The truck that pulls up belongs to the new tenants. The diction used here already portrays them as selfish and inconsiderate. The phrase “only a sliver of space” is repeated in the story’s last scene, where it refers to how little room the tenant’s left Shay’s mother to pull her car out. In this passage, “only a sliver of space for air to slip through” evokes ideas of suffocation, especially alongside the word “killed” regarding the engine.

“The scrape and screech of bus brakes every fifteen minutes.”

This sentence is part of a longer description of the sights and sounds of everyday life in Brooklyn, which helps create a believable setting. This sentence in particular also employs cadence and alliteration, which strengthens the effect of the pleasant and familiar description of setting.

“Shay pushed her finger into her own sternum, like pushing a button to turn her heart on. Or off.”

As Shay points to her chest, she is telling Dante that “love is a strong word” (4). She’s talking about her father, but the narration about turning her heart on or off makes it clear that she also thinks love might be too strong a word to use for the relationship between her and Dante.