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
Aurelia whips S. Bliss to the seesaw with one hand. She’s mad now, you hear. With Bliss gruntin’ and groanin’ underneath her, my mama growls: “What about Lili? Whatchu gonna do with Liliane, heifer?”
“Leave her with her father! What’d you think I was about to do?”
Then, I saw my mama turn around and slap S. Bliss, Sunday Bliss, herself, with the back of her hand with as much force as she could muster, and believe me, I know. There was a sudden quietness, a quiet made me tremble. The two of them standin’ there in that gazebo like the world’d come to an end, leastways their world anyway.
“Nobody leaves a LaFontaine. Nobody leaves a LaFontaine child anywhere, not less they dead.”
“Well, I’m not goin’ to die just so I can live my own life. And dammit, look at her. She doesn’t even look like a LaFontaine. Look at her, dammit. I can’t even imagine how’s she related to me. I can’t. I can’t explain how she happened. I can’t. I just can’t.”
Aurelia steps back, confused, as far as I can tell. She’s shakin’ her head again. That’s not good, either.
“That girl thinks the world of you, bitch. She lives and breathes for you to simply spend some of your time with her. Look at her. Shit. I been watchin’ you all her life, makin’ the world pretty, makin’ yourself pretty, so maybe she wouldn’t notice whatever in the hell you think is so ‘ugly’ bout her. Oh, no. I don’t need to look at Lili and see she’s not a LaFontaine. All I’ve gotta do is take one look at you and know you never have been.”
Auntie Bliss starts tuggin’ on my mama’s clothes, talkin’ about: “Don’t say that, ’Relia. Please don’t say that.”
Mama pulls away from her real brusquelike: “I can only say what’s true, Bliss. Only what’s true. Now I know, your truth and mine got nothin’ in common. Nothin’ at all.” Then my mama walked backward from her sister Bliss, shakin’ her head again, mumblin’ again. Sunday Bliss lay crouched on the floor of the gazebo, cursin’ Parnell, Lili, and the LaFontaine family in general. She went on and on til finally I thought to myself, couldn’t be nobody else left for her to put the evil eye or 666 or a Klan cross or nothin’ on. There wasn’t nobody left for her tongue to whip, for the gods she worshipped to come after.