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
——— You see, now that I know about this huge charade my parents created so the two of them could have their worlds just the way they wanted, I’m really mad. I’m fuckin’ pissed, actually. How dare they? Make me half an orphan, and then not an orphan. S. Bliss is a perfect wife and she’s a slut. Daddy is a colored King Solomon, but he’s really a Paraguayan fascist who disappears people, more specifically, his wife. Even thinkin’ about this makes my blood rush to my cheeks. Oh! I am so mad at them!
——— That’s understandable, Lili. They made some decisions that changed the contours of your life significantly.
——— “Changed”? You must mean warped, distorted, or something like destroyed, right?
——— I think you know that I choose my words very carefully.
——— And you think telling a child her mother’s died is just “a change in the contours” of my life. Don’t make me laugh.
——— I don’t hear you laughing, Liliane.
——— Damn straight.
———
——— I’ve been thinkin’ and I’ve been thinkin’.
——— Yes.
——— There’s no goddamned reason she can give me for leaving in the first place, and on top of that staying gone all my life, all my life. What muthafuckah could be worth all that? And a white man? No wonder my daddy threw her ass out. We don’t need no bitch gettin up from suckin’ some cracker cock to come kissin’ on us. Shit. No.
——— So, now you understand your father’s position?
——— I understand that I’m mad.
——— Oh, I can see that, Lili, but a while ago you were mad with both of your parents.
——— You got that right.
——— I might be right on the money, but I think you might be angry with Parnell and Sunday Bliss Lincoln for different reasons.
——— Sunday Bliss Rothenstein, Rothenstein, shit. She walks out the door, leaves me behind, goes off with her lover to start a new life, and I have to live with her over and over again, because all I had was memories. I had memories and pictures. Memories and stories I’d tell sometimes. That’s all I had. And she, that bitch had a whole life…and I wasn’t in it.
——— Well, not physically.
——— Hey, I’m in no mood to play around here. If I was a part of her interior worlds I sure would’ve made her call, just once. Send a train ticket. Meet me at a friend’s house. She could have done a whole lotta things. [Liliane starts to cry.] What the hell are you lookin’ at?
——— A young woman who is as hurt as she is furious.
——— Fuck. This is too much for me. I always heard “S. Bliss is somethin’ else,” but I’m not ready for this. I’m just not.
——— Well, if you’re not ready, you don’t haveta try to be.
——— What?