CHORUS:

Kink in my hair. Kink.

SHAWNETTE:

We had a plan. I got another job so you could go to med school. (beat) Left you studying at night as I caught the five Downtown train of Faith, connecting to the number 23 bus of Hope. I cleaned those offices and I dreamed.

CHORUS:

Dreamed.

SHAWNETTE:

I ate caviar sandwiches on my ten-minute break. And when I came home all tired and torn you played with that kink in my hair.

CHORUS:

Kink in my hair. Kink.

SHAWNETTE:

Sweat and your love dripping between my thighs. (beat) Filling me up again with you!

CHORUS:

You? You. You!

SHAWNETTE:

You! So forgive me if I feel to choke now! I got a burning desire to spit you the fuck out! (beat) Because I paid my dues!

CHORUS & SHAWNETTE:

I did my time! I made you! I loved you! I believed you! I still love you. (softer tone and in disbelief)

SHAWNETTE:

So I just don’t get when it became so important to you that I didn’t have a college education. Every time we got invited to a colleague’s dinner party, you held your breath every time I spoke. Heard lies coming out of your mouth as you invented who I needed to be, who you thought I should be. All the education I got, and all the degrees I never earned. (beat) But you forgot to tell them that my education was about love, trust, and honesty! It was about us! Me loving you and you loving me.

CHORUS:

You loving me. Me?

Two beats.

SHAWNETTE:

Yet all too soon, the kink in my hair.

CHORUS:

Kink. Kink in my hair.

SHAWNETTE:

Me? I just couldn’t seem to fit into your dreams. You trying desperately to change me. But I had to resist when you tried to erase me…

CHORUS:

Erase? Erase me.

SHAWNETTE:

(two beats) So now I’m here and she’s there. She’s in our home. She’s in our bed. Lying in my sweat and my tears. She’s the mother of your children. (beat) How come she’s got my life? I don’t think she remembers tuna caviar! (beat) I don’t think she mended your spirit and patched up your soul! (beat) She met you! But she never dreamed you! Believed you! She could never dream you…

CHORUS:

Dream? Dream you. Dream.

SHAWNETTE:

She could never dream you. And I know there ain’t no kink to play with in her hair. (beat) You use to love to play with that kink in my hair.

The griots sing a soft melody. Go to black. The lights transition as SHAWNETTE returns to chair. The lights go up with NOVELETTE’s fingers still in SHAWNETTE’s hair.

NOVELETTE:

So there you go Shawney. Twisted so nice you can feel the breeze through your locks now. A fresh breeze is good. It helps you think. Makes you see things clearer.

SHAWNETTE:

Thanks Novelette.

SHAWNETTE gets up and NOVELETTE walks her over to the cash register.

NOVELETTE:

And don’t you dare come back in here again looking like Donald Trump!