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
——— Lili, you can make adjustments in your life, about your mother or your father, at your own pace. They dashed about in your childhood with abandon. You don’t have to allow that again. You can have as little or as much contact as you desire.
——— See, my head is hurtin’ me now.
——— I can see how the Lincolns could be a “headache.”
——— What if she doesn’t like me?
——— Now how would that happen?
——— My father raised me. She left his behind: too controlling, too rigid. What if she sees him every time she looks at me?
——— Liliane, it’d be hard for anybody to see a sixty-year-old man when they look at you.
——— But, don’t you see? I don’t know what I mean to her, or meant to her. Shit. When I took Sierra to Mississippi to Roxie’s parents, I thought I was going to die. I…si…My heart was…achin’.
——— Liliane, we don’t know that your mother didn’t feel like she was dying. We don’t know she didn’t have a broken heart or a gaping emptiness when she left you.
——— You’re tryin’ to make this easier, aren’t you?
——— There’s no way we can make any of this easier, I’m sorry to say.
——— But it’s just that nobody was thinkin’ about me. Daddy has his principles, his honor. And she got her freedom, I guess.
——— Does she still raise orchids, Lili?
——— I don’t know, probably. Maybe not, though, cause…
——— Cause she’s got one flower that still needs tending to, I think.
——— I know you’re not referring to me?
——— I most certainly am.
——— Aw, sometimes you are sweet, but this is one woreout posey over here.
——— Well, what’s that like?
——— What? Being wilted? [She laughs.]
——— Yes.
——— Humm. I could probably do better if I tell you this dream. It’s one of those dreams that get me up thinkin’ I should do whatever I imagined I should be doin’ in the dream. You know, I get up and go to meet people I talked to in my dreams. Hell, I get up to fix em somethin’ to eat.
——— And who were you feeding last?
——— I wasn’t feedin’ anybody, actually. I was makin’ a mess. A big mess. [She giggles.] I was makin’ a big goddamn mess. I was. I really was.
——— Yes, Lili, painters are fairly anal.
——— Oh, you hush up and listen to my dream.
——— I’m right here.
——— Well, we’re in the house I grew up in with two floors and a porch, but I’m downstairs in one of my mother’s very sexy evening gowns, shoes, her rhinestone heels, and a small purse. I’ve gobs of lipstick and powder on, stirring a large concoction of every liquor I could find in a beautiful punch bowl. There is some band playing in the kitchen. I’m tempted to say Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.