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
Now my mama, lookin’ for Bliss, lookin’ like she’s playin’ hide ’n seek, stammers: “But, Bliss, these trees take twenty years to get this big.”
As if appearin’ from outta nowhere, Bliss sighs: “Yeah, I know that.”
At this point, I could tell my mama didn’t know who she was talkin’ to: Bliss or her imagination. All this carryin’ on bout some damn plants was crazy as all get out to us. Now, all of a sudden delphiniums and roses and lilies lined what would have been boxed flowerbeds were they not obscured by the luxuriance of Auntie Bliss’s selections. “This is all designed for Liliane. I’ve a purpose here, Aurelia. Lili can come here for the rest of her life and know herself to be one of the most ravishing creatures on earth.”
With some difficulty, Mama worked at a part of her dress that had snagged on a rose bush. She was just a-shakin’ her head. I imagine she was makin’ those sounds she makes when she’s puzzled. Mama’d told me before she believed her sister Bliss’d read too many tarot cards.
I’m thinkin’, thank God, those two are movin’ too fast. If they ever do getta notion that I’m diggin’ out here for my marijuana plants Lili promised to cultivate, it’d be my ass. That’s what.
“Bliss, now you know I love you like nobody else in the world, but you can’t build all this for no child, especially not a Negro child in this day and age. Why she can’t even drink water some places. Plus, hear me now, if she carries on like you, she’ll be dead before either one of us: me or you. How’s that sit with your fancy ways and dreamin’s?”
Auntie Sunday, I like callin’ her that, brought the petal of some flower (you know I don’t know what they callt), well, she brought the petal of some flower to her lips and cheek so delicately. I thought she might actually pass out, you know, swoon, from the touch of it, but that’s too much for me to fathom. A flower petal’s gointa run off with all my senses. Yet, Sunday seemed none the worse for wear, if you get what I mean. She turned to my mama like she just been blessed by the Pope himself:
“Aurelia, she won’t have to be anything at all like you or me. She won’t have to construct herself a garden of love; a garden of early delights, so to speak. Ha. She’ll have the whole real world. She and Lollie, they’ll have the whole world to make their own, their home.”