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
——— Who, what you are talking about, is all guys: the lil guy baby, Miguelito, Guillermo, and the guy in jail. What in the world do you think they have to do with me?
——— Well, they’re in your dream, Lili.
——— I repeat. They are all guys, males, fellas. They have nothing to do with me. My lil baby person is not locatable after the first two scenes.
——— Liliane, you know as well as I that we do not have dreams where we cease to exist.
——— You mean I was a guy…. I was a boy baby? Oh, my God.
——— Worse things could happen.
——— Like what? Oh, my God, I dreamt myself as a baby boy and a man. Jesus, how disgusting…. I’d rather die.
——— Lili, listen to me. You dreamt yourself as that lil boy baby abandoned and then saved by men you trust and love very much, men who’ve delivered you from ethical, ascetic, and spiritual pitfalls, without fail. You dreamt yourself as a child somebody actually made a decision to save, risked lives to get you out of danger….
——— Course, they did. I was a boy.
——— No, Liliane. You were you.
———
——— Liliane, your own warriors saluted you last night.
——— Yeah. Right. As a boy. Some salvation! What’re they gonna do when they find out I’ve got a pussy? Throw me back to the sea?
——— No. Absolutely not. The only one at the bottom of the sea is Sierra, and she wasn’t yours to begin with, was she?
——— Of course not, she was Roxie’s.
——— And whose are you, Lili? Don’t answer too quickly because we’ve no need for haste, here.
——— I’m, I mean, I’m my own, if I have to belong to somebody.
——— Yes. And who’s come to claim you?
——— Nobody. I died in the bottom of the sea. I told you that.
——— No. Sierra died, we think, at the bottom of the sea. Miguel and Guillermo delivered you safely to somebody, who was that, Lili?
———
——— Liliane, can you hear me?
——— Que tu queres?
——— No mucho, chica. Liliane, don’t you feel how protected you were?
——— No, yo no entiendo nada.
——— Sí, tu puedes. Cabrera-Infante and Algarin took you away in a language that was not dangerous to you and left you with your “true” parent.
——— Cause I was a baby boy.
——— No, because your old-fashioned view of the world only allows boys a second chance. That’s why “cause.”
——— Wait now, I’m trying to catch up.
——— You don’t have to rush, Liliane, they’ll wait.
——— Wait for what?
——— For whatever you imagine. There are men who literally are at your beck and call.
——— Stop joshin’ me.