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
Ah-ha. Here’s Lollie with her mother, Aurelia, going up the gangplank to some riverboat cafe for the wedding rehearsal dinner. Smooth freckled cheeks, the same. The smiles ripe with lust, the same. The clouds rolling by the sun dim the light enough for their eyes to stay we open, determined and hopeful that this will be Lollie’s definitive debut to “society” and Aurelia’s greatest accomplishment. Eventually, Lollie will lose some of her mother’s guile, release the not so hardened Lollie who is a daughter of the river spirit Erzulie. There she is with the shape of a mermaid, tussled blond braids and Eartha Kitts’s grin, to dine, to fête: a bride for the gods.
Oh, I forgot. My Liliane, let alone Lollie, would be so terribly, terribly angry with me, if I forgot to say what they were wearing. I, myself, Victor-Jésus María, had nothing to do with this. I’m always interested in the tastes of my subjects. Tu m’entiendes? Floral patterned silk organza dresses, low-cut bodice and hot pink satin platform shoes. Hey, this is Lollie’s affair. I’m tellin’ you the colors and stuff, so you have a sense of the evening. I think Aurelia was telling Lollie to watch her gutter mouth cause West Indians are seriously old-fashioned.
Well, here’s a mystery. I think this is a close-up of Sunday Bliss’s eyes; desaparecida of our generation. Liliane never mentioned that her mother’s eyes are the color of lilacs. Yes, lilacs with veins of white hot steel. Even now I’m drawn to her, feel her brush by me. Damn. Pobrecita, Lili, no wonder you’re such a loquita, growing up with a mama like that. What a fox! No, I’m not entertaining any notions of leaving my Lili. No, Lili’s eyes are deep warm browns that glow or dim, gleam and twinkle with warmth, with alla her. This Bliss woman steals the sun for herself and leaves the rest of us in shadows. Pero, she still only has one pair of eyes, so it ain’t magic.
I really like this one: Lollie and everybody, all her wedding maids, were on the upstairs back terrace in their slips. (We’d just come in from tearin’ up the town, the towns and country, if you will.) I’m really trying to do my job, capturing everything about Lollie’s wedding. I stand behind the French doors: “Are you all decent yet?” There is a lot of typical female giggling. “Have you ever known us to be decent?” That’s Lollie. “You wanta whole lotta decent or jus’ a lil bit?” I think that’s Bernadette. So I say: “Only what you can handle.” “Then, bring it on, negrito” and you know that was Lili as well as I do.