Was this what Malaya had done to her? Turned her into a person who went around killing others, who took lives as carelessly as the houseboys stamped on cockroaches?...Why not drown in gin slings? Why not pour them down her throat until the noises in her head blurred into a dull, unrecognizable murmur that had no meaning? Why not?...she had to make certain Malaya didn't get the chance to choke [her son] the way it was choking her.
