And, for some reason she could not immediately account for, the moment she got close enough tosee the face, Sethe's bladder filled to capacity. She said, "Oh, excuse me," and ran around to theback of 124. Not since she was a baby girl, being cared for by the eight year-old girl who pointedout her mother to her, had she had an emergency that unmanageable. She never made the outhouse. Right in front of its door she had to lift her skirts, and the water she voided was endless. Like ahorse, she thought, but as it went on and on she thought, No, more like flooding the boat whenDenver was born.
So much water Amy said, "Hold on, Lu. You going to sink us you keep that up."But there was no stopping water breaking from a breaking womb and there was no stopping now.
She hoped Paul D wouldn't take it upon himself to come looking for her and be obliged to see hersquatting in front of her own privy making a mudhole too deep to be witnessed without shame. Just about the time she started wondering if the carnival would accept another freak, it stopped.She tidied herself and ran around to the porch.
No one was there. All three were insidePaul D andDenver standing before the stranger, watching her drink cup after cup of water.
"She said she was thirsty," said Paul D. He took off his cap.
"Mighty thirsty look like."
The woman gulped water from a speckled tin cup and held it out for more. Four times Denverfilled it, and four times the woman drank as though she had crossed a desert. When she wasfinished a little water was on her chin, but she did not wipe it away. Instead she gazed at Sethewith sleepy eyes. Poorly fed, thought Sethe, and younger than her clothes suggested — good laceat the throat, and a rich woman's hat. Her skin was flawless except for three vertical scratches onher forehead so fine and thin they seemed at first like hair, baby hair before it bloomed and ropedinto the masses of black yarn under her hat.
"You from around here?" Sethe asked her.