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Marcus Bradford
The protagonist of “How to Look (Both) Both Ways,” Fatima is a Latimer Middle School student who has only recently been allowed to walk home on her own. Fatima’s mom and Fatima’s dad have white collar jobs and live in a house in a wealthier neighborhood, and they’re extremely protective of Fatima—hence their hesitation to allow Fatima to walk home alone. However, Fatima is desperate for some independence, so when her walks home on the first few days of school are disastrous (Fatima falls and gets caught in the rain), she downplays her experiences when she tells her parents—she doesn’t want to give them any reason to get her a babysitter again. To help herself feel in control of her walk, Fatima thinks of her mom’s scientific experiments and begins writing about everything that’s the same or different each day about her trip home. This entails counting how many steps there are between different landmarks; counting signs, sidewalk cracks, and houses; and noting how her daily greetings and conversations with Ms. Post and Benni change. At first, Fatima is a little afraid of Benni, a woman who dances down the street singing and playing imaginary instruments. But the two gradually develop a friendship, and walking together for a few blocks becomes a normal part of Fatima’s routine. On the day the story takes place, Benni asks Fatima how she plans to change the world. Fatima considers how she might help people, but decides her small actions wouldn’t be enough to actually do anything.
Fatima Moss Quotes in Look Both Ways
The Look Both Ways quotes below are all either spoken by Fatima Moss or refer to Fatima Moss. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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4. How to Look (Both) Both Ways
Quotes
27. SCHOOL CROSSING is the first sign. A picture of an adult and a child. I think. Weird, because kids cross by themselves.
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[…] but she left out the part about the woman in the pink pants because she knew if she told her mother, […] that would be the end of walking. That would be the end of a babysitterless life. Back to cheese-toast snack time and other coughy kids whining about what they want to watch on TV. And she didn’t want that because even though the first walk was rough, anything was worth trying again if it meant she could come home and be alone in her house, where she could microwave nuggets and pretend to be a flight attendant like her father.
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50. I look both ways.
Difference: Then I think about Ms. Broome’s assignment. What could I be? What do I wish I could become to change the world? I think about telling Benni I might want to be wet cement to fill the cracks in the sidewalk. Not to hide. But to stop someone else from tripping. Or maybe I’d be an umbrella to keep rain from someone’s head. Keep someone dry in a storm. But I don’t say none of that to Benni, because I don’t think either of those things would change the world. So I tell her I don’t know.
I don’t know. I don’t know how to change the world.
Then I ask her if she’d maybe let me borrow one of her instruments to play.
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10. The Broom Dog
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Canton shrugged, tossed it up in the air. Caught it. Tossed it again. Caught it. Again, and loose straw separated from the bunch. Again. And more loose straw, falling down on them. And more. Ms. Post laughed. “Look at that. A school bus falling from the sky.”
Canton smiled, knowing a school bus is many things.
So is a walk home.
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Get the entire Look Both Ways LitChart as a printable PDF.
Fatima Moss Quotes in Look Both Ways
The Look Both Ways quotes below are all either spoken by Fatima Moss or refer to Fatima Moss. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
4. How to Look (Both) Both Ways
Quotes
27. SCHOOL CROSSING is the first sign. A picture of an adult and a child. I think. Weird, because kids cross by themselves.
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[…] but she left out the part about the woman in the pink pants because she knew if she told her mother, […] that would be the end of walking. That would be the end of a babysitterless life. Back to cheese-toast snack time and other coughy kids whining about what they want to watch on TV. And she didn’t want that because even though the first walk was rough, anything was worth trying again if it meant she could come home and be alone in her house, where she could microwave nuggets and pretend to be a flight attendant like her father.
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50. I look both ways.
Difference: Then I think about Ms. Broome’s assignment. What could I be? What do I wish I could become to change the world? I think about telling Benni I might want to be wet cement to fill the cracks in the sidewalk. Not to hide. But to stop someone else from tripping. Or maybe I’d be an umbrella to keep rain from someone’s head. Keep someone dry in a storm. But I don’t say none of that to Benni, because I don’t think either of those things would change the world. So I tell her I don’t know.
I don’t know. I don’t know how to change the world.
Then I ask her if she’d maybe let me borrow one of her instruments to play.
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10. The Broom Dog
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Canton shrugged, tossed it up in the air. Caught it. Tossed it again. Caught it. Again, and loose straw separated from the bunch. Again. And more loose straw, falling down on them. And more. Ms. Post laughed. “Look at that. A school bus falling from the sky.”
Canton smiled, knowing a school bus is many things.
So is a walk home.
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