I was now a little girl who had to keep all of her compulsions inside. Whenever it became to much, after hours of hoarding blinkings and poppings that threatened to burst out in a thousand grotesque movements, I'd offer to get Matanni a jar of green beans from the root cellar, a pantry-sized room dug from a hill not twenty feet from the back door; and, once inside, I'd close the wooden planked door and let loose. Every blink that had been stored up spilled forth. Every jerk that had been constrained leaped out. For ten minutes, I'd contort until the anxiety was all spent.
-- Icy Sparks (narration) (chapter 1)

Importance: This is how Icy Sparks describes the sudden mental and physical outbursts that come to define her childhood. Icy will frequently repeat many of the words in this passage as she describes other outbursts, including "blinkings" and "poppings." Icy's inclusion of the word "anxiety" is...