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
From what seemed like a cave a thousand miles away, Lollie screamed back at me: “They freed the slaves, gal, didn’t you hear?” Then I heard foolish-sounding laughter, just like those Southern belles with Jeb Stuart and Jeff Davis. I knew that Roxie, every bit the Tina Turner of the high and mighty, was out there laughing herself to death about me. “They freed the slaves, didn’t you hear” bumped up against the walls of the rooms to where I myself was standing: tried to get me, too. To hell with that. To hell with them, too. I gotta sit back here all by myself, while they laugh at me and drink the Judge’s liquor, get prissy pussies excited on the phone to Nassau, and generally act the fool.
I could go home. That’s what I could do. Call my moms, say things didn’t work out the way we’d planned. I want to go home. I’m getting myself together to let these heifers know they ain’t the end of the world, when I see Hyacinthe stumbling toward the doorway. I looked at her close, now, cause I know she ain’t had no time to be drinkin’ or nothin’, but she was really fallin’ toward me. I was meanin’ to go home, now, but nobody else was payin’ any mind to this girl. “Hyacinthe, are you all right, huh?” She didn’t say nothin’ just kept mumblin’ and cryin’ and movin’ toward me. “Hyacinthe, damn. Can you hear me? Are you okay?”
Lord, why did I ask this child anything? Why didn’t Lollie or Liliane or Roxie, one of them who knew this girl, get they black behinds back here. “Liliane! Roxie! Lollie!” I was shoutin’ for real now, cause Hyacinthe was askin’ me crazy shit, I mean, strange shit.
“Do you know where they send us to get our eyes to glow in the dark, Bernadette, I want to know. Bernadette, is that your real name or your slave name? Where is the school for niggahs where they show us how to roll our eyes like this and then like that? Am I getting it right? How’s this?”
Now you know sho as I’m breathin’, that I don’t know nothin’ about no rollin’ niggah eyes or glowin’ niggah eyes, and Hyacinthe is justa practicin’ whatever this mess she’s talkin’ bout. Just now at the point when I know I gotta get the hell outta here, don’t ya know here come the slew of drunken banshees, the whole lot of them.
“Oh Lollie, I think Hyacinthe is gone back to slavery times again,” Liliane quips very irresponsibly, if you ask me.
Rose Lynne stood still and then ran off somewhere.