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
——— All right. Say that then.
——— Yes. Yes. I think I am preparing for guests cause I go to Mommy’s first greenhouse and pick some of her orchids. I put a few in my hair and the rest in the punch and the lapels of The Midnighters. Just when I feel everything is ready, I hear Mommy coming down the stairs, shouting at me: “Liliane, what are you doin’?” I turn around to check everything and The Midnighters disappear. I pour a lil punch into the crystal cup for me and Mommy. She gets to the landing of the stairway and I say: “Why, S. Bliss, I’m so glad you could come.” Well, from the look on her face I could tell she was horrified. “Liliane, what in the hell have you done to yourself?” I start to feel a bit less beautiful. “I was getting ready to entertain some friends,” I say. Mommy starts to notice my decorations: her flowers and my punch. She approaches me with tears welling in her eyes. “Oh my God, Lili, my flowers. You picked my flowers.” Thinkin’ that now Mommy needed a drink, I handed her some punch, my punch. She took a sip, looking very bewildered, and then spit it out, almost in my face. “Look what you’ve done. You lil bitch.” I start to cry. The flowers in the punch seem sodden and dreary. My dress is too big. I think my makeup is smeared with tears. Mommy turns away from me and throws the punch bowl, all my condiments and things on the floor. “Who in the hell do you think could drink this mess, huh? Tell me.” I wake up shaking and very frightened.
——— I’m sure that frightened a little girl.
——— But my mother loved parties, dancin’, and, well, entertainin’.
——— But she wasn’t entertainin’, was she?
——— No, she was my guest. That’s why I was all dressed up.
——— But what was special to her, in the dream, was not a little girl’s fantasies of growing up, but her flowers.
——— And the mess I made.
——— Well, little girls are unpredictable, fantastical, messy creatures who need their messes and dreams validated.
——— Not spit back in their faces.
——— That’s right, Liliane. Your mommy is the one who turned your life into a bitter “concoction” where precious flower petals wilted and the music disappeared.
——— But it was my dream, right?
——— Yes, but for better or worse, S. Bliss is very real.
——— Oh shit. Know what I just realized? Hank Ballard sang the original “Twist.” S. Bliss sure put a twist on my life.
——— That she did, Lili. It’s time.
——— Shit. You can’t even smell orchids. At least I smell like Liliane.
——— Undoubtedly.