Only after she’d crossed the badly lit street did she realize that she’d left without buying the skin cream. It was a small failure, forgetting the lotion, but she failed Cai so constantly in so many different, myriad ways that even this tiny mistake was sufficient to wring her insides with fresh anger.
-- Narrator (Chapter 1 paragraph N/A)

Importance: These words towards the beginning of the novel demonstrate Devon’s mental state at the beginning of the novel. She fears she failed her son. This is notable because it creates suspense in the novel because the reader does not know why it is that she feels she failed her son or if she really even failed him in the first place. These words also establish the degree to which Devon wants to care for her son and do right by him.

Devon’s own mother was an unremembered face, having long since moved on...
-- Narrator (Chapter 2 paragraph N/A)