Chapters (31)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Room in the Dark I
- Fawns of the Diaspora Court Liliane in Paris, While Tabou Combo Whispers “Coq Qualité” in Her Ears
- Room in the Dark II
- “I Usedta Drink, Smoke and Do the Hoochie-Koo,” or What’s a Girl to Do When Her Mother Looks Like Ruth Brown
- Room in the Dark III
- “El Bochinche” es que only Fe Cortijo Knows or All the LeBron Brothers Know If Victor-Jésus María Sang Lili to Her Freedom
- Room in the Dark IV
- And Where Is Garnett Mimms?
- Room in the Dark V
- I Know Where Kansas City Is, But Did Wilbert Harrison Ever Get There?
- Room in the Dark VI
- Zoom Went the Strings of Liliane’s Heart, But Arsenio Rodriguez Could Have Told Her the Music Sounds Just as Sweet When We’re Blind and Still We See
- Room in the Dark VII
- I Know Where the E Train Stops But I’m “Sendin’ Out an S.O.S.” and I’m Not Edwin Starr Either
- Room in the Dark VIII
- “Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby” or Wouldn’t It Be Great If the Lead Singer of The Crests Wasn’t a White Boy and I Could Be My Mother?
- Room in the Dark IX
- Every Time My Lil World Seems Blue, I Just Haveta Look at You and Learn Eye-Hand Coordination
- Room in the Dark X
- “That’s Why I Love Her So and Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I Want to Know” or Why Jackie Wilson Died in Silence
- Room in the Dark XI
- There’s No Use Cryin’ “Forever” or Hyacinthe Returns from a Very Blue Holiday for Real B(l)ack at Ya
- Room in the Dark XII
- Lollie Struts Her Stuff Thru “The Sea of Love” or the Brides of Frankenstein Catch the Bouquet
- By Ntozake Shange
- Acknowledgments
- Copyright
“No. No. Everything is not alright. I’ve been drawing you. Every day from right over there. Eye-hand coordination. I was working on. I practiced getting you just right. I sleep underneath braids, huge bronze braids like yours, I made from drawings of you I took home every day. And I never said hello to you or asked how you were feeling.”
I’m every shade of purple now. I am crying. He lifts my chin. I do not look at him. I cannot.
“What’s wrong with that? You’re an artist, right?”
“Yes. I was perfecting eye-hand coordination.”
“Fine. That’s good.”
I feel his forearm tween my waist and my ribcage, lava, a house music triple-threat bass mix.
“Yeah. Now all you gotta do is kiss me again. Then tell me your name, so, I know how to say, please do it again….”
“Thayer.”
“Thay…” I want to have a decent conversation, but his tongue is all up, back in my mouth so all I can do is remember drawing with my heart. My hands are swept up in muscles, Aretha’s wail is coaxing me off my feet.
“And I ain’t never, no no. Loved a man the way that I/I love you.”
But that’s me, Lili, sayin’ “Kiss me once again. Thayer, don’t you never, never, say that we’re through, cause I ain’t never loved a man the way that I’ve, I’ve drawn you.”
Room in the Dark X
——— You don’t haveta tell me.
——— Tell you what, Lili?
——— I can’t keep Sierra, that’s what.
——— I have never said you can’t keep Sierra.
——— I can’t keep Sierra anymore than I can keep a wish or a dream. We can’t hold on to dreams either, can we?
——— Lili, I am not sure I am following you. Is it Sierra you can’t keep or your dreams?
——— Both. I can’t keep anything. Nothing…. It’s ridiculous.
——— Dreams are ridiculous? Sierra too?
——— Don’t play a jackass, now. You know goddamn well what I mean.
——— I don’t know anything you don’t tell me, Lili. That’s the truth.
——— Oh, go to hell.
———
——— I was Roxie’s best friend. I tried to help her, before…
——— …before Tony killed her.
——— Yes. Before Tony killed her, she was my best friend. She met Tony at Hotel Nacional where I took her for a few drinks, ha! I translated for them in between sets when he could talk to her. Then, later on I helped her with her letters to him….
——— But you didn’t meet him when the dinghies and yachts came in from Mariel, did you?
——— No, Roxie did.
——— See, Lili, we sort of danced around this issue before. Roxie had a child with Tony, was in love with Tony, and was killed by Tony. There is nothing you could have done about any of that.