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
——— Butch didn’t want Roxie to die. God! He’s Sierra’s father. He didn’t want the mother of his child to die. They were friends.
——— But even Roxie’s friends couldn’t stop her, Liliane.
——— Not her, Tony! Tony killed her! Why can’t you accept that?
——— I’m not denying that Tony did this heinous crime, Liliane. I’m simply trying to help you accept that Roxie left herself and Sierra in very dangerous hands after repeated warnings from you and Butch, you see?
——— I was right in the first place. I told you I can’t have therapy today. I just can’t.
——— What do you want to do?
——— I want to shoot Tony. I want to kill him. I want to hurt him like he hurt Roxie and Sierra.
——— And you as well. Tony has hurt you too.
——— I want to see him dead.
——— Well, is he in custody?
——— Yes, of course, but he’s pretending to be crazy. Son of a bitch.
——— Still, there’ll be an arraignment, a trial.
——— Yes.
——— That’s how things are done in this country, right?
——— Stop asking me questions! I’m not on trial here! He doesn’t deserve a trial! He needs his eyes pulled from their sockets. I want to beat his skull with a baseball bat until there’s nothing left but a pile of his filthy mean demented brain that long-haul trucks run over again and again so we can’t even tell he was human.
——— Tony is human, Liliane.
——— No! No he isn’t! He’s an animal and he’s alive and, and…
——— Roxie is dead.
——— I have to go home now. I have a lot of things to do. A memorial service, an inventory of paintings and sculptures, bank account. Roxie didn’t have any family except Sierra, Butch, and me. That is all she had.
——— You all loved her very much, Liliane. That’s a lot.
——— I’ll call to reschedule. I’m not good at handling…death, you see.
——— Liliane, are you all right?
——— No. I’m not awright. I have to go home.
——— But, Liliane, you’re walking toward the window, not the door.
——— Mommy. Mommy, don’t leave me like this. Don’t go! Don’t go! Daddy, stop her! Please, Daddy, make her come home. Why are you standin’ here like that? Mommy, Mommy, come back. Come back to me! Come back, Mommy! Don’t leave. Don’t leave me, Mommy….
——— Where is your mother going, Liliane?
——— She’s going to Hell, he said. She’s dead. She’s dead now, he said. She’s going to Hell.
——— Liliane, dead people don’t walk outside windows for us to see.
——— Can’t see her now. She’s dead. She’s going to Hell.
——— How did your mother die, Liliane?