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One Crazy Summer
One Crazy Summer
One Crazy Summer
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One Crazy Summer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them. A strong option for summer reading—take this book along on a family road trip or enjoy it at home.

This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama.

Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Rita Williams-Garcia's books about Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern can also be read alongside nonfiction explorations of American history such as Jason Reynolds's and Ibram X. Kendi's books.

In One Crazy Summer, eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. But when the sisters arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with their mother, Cecile is nothing like they imagined.

While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

This novel was the first featured title for Marley D’s Reading Party, launched after the success of #1000BlackGirlBooks. Maria Russo, in a New York Times list of "great kids' books with diverse characters," called it "witty and original."

"This vibrant and moving award-winning novel has heart to spare," commented Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich in her Brightly article "Knowing Our History to Build a Brighter Future: Books to Help Kids Understand the Fight for Racial Equality."

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateJan 26, 2010
ISBN9780061966675
Author

Rita Williams-Garcia

Rita Williams-Garcia's Newbery Honor Book, One Crazy Summer, was a winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a National Book Award finalist, the recipient of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and a New York Times bestseller. The two sequels, P.S. Be Eleven and Gone Crazy in Alabama, were both Coretta Scott King Author Award winners and ALA Notable Children’s Books. Her novel Clayton Byrd Goes Underground was a National Book Award finalist and winner of the NAACP Image Award for Youth/Teen Literature. Rita is also the author of five other distinguished novels for young adults: Jumped, a National Book Award finalist; No Laughter Here, Every Time a Rainbow Dies (a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book), Fast Talk on a Slow Track (all ALA Best Books for Young Adults); and Blue Tights. Rita Williams-Garcia lives in Jamaica, New York, with her husband and has two adult daughters. You can visit her online at ritawg.com.

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Rating: 4.183866404651162 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was special to me as it took place during 1968 which was one of the most tumultious years during civil rights. These three young girls are sent to spend a few weeks with a mother who abandoned them 7 years earlier. They are not welcomed when they get to her home in Oakland CA and she will not take care of them. They eat at the homeless shelter and their mother sends them to a
    Black Panther summer camp. The girls learn to grow up quickly. I recommend this book and it is on the Middle school battle of the books list this year.

    It’s 1968 and eleven-year-old Dephine and her two younger sisters have been sent from their Brooklyn home to Oakland to visit a mother they basically don’t know. Their mother, Cecil, left them right after the youngest sister was born. But now their father believes it’s time for the girls to know their mother and vice versa.

    When they arrive, it’s clear they are not welcome. It’s a good thing Delphine knows how to take care of herself and her sisters, because their mother has no intention of caring for them. When they complain of hunger, she sends them up the street for take-out Chinese food. In the morning she tells them to go to the People’s Center for breakfast. They are to stay there all day and join the Black Panther Day Camp.

    Delphine had high hopes of getting to know this mother she barely remembers. But, within a few days, Delphine believes she’s just crazy. Cecil has changed her name and calls herself a poet. Gradually Dephine changes her mind about her being crazy. But it’s not until the end of the story that Delphine, and the reader, get a glimpse into the background of Cecil.

    The other thing Delphine learned was a first-hand education in black history, black pride, and specifically the Black Panther movement. It’s all seen through the eyes of a child.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “We all have our la-la-la song. The thing we do when the world isn't singing a nice tune to us. We sing our own nice tune to drown out ugly.”

    Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, are flying from New York to California alone. Being the oldest, Delphine’s in charge, but it's not easy keeping two little sisters in line. What's even harder is the fact that it's the late 1960s, and they have the fear of Big Ma (their grandma) in them, which reminds them that they're representing all African-American people. Delphine doesn't want her sisters to do anything wrong. When they get to California, they are met by their mother, Cecile, who seems like a shifty character with her sunglasses and quick ways through the airport. Cecile abandoned them seven years before and doesn't seem very motherly when she takes them to her apartment. She won't even let them in the kitchen! Each step of the way, Delphine acts like a little mother trying to protect her sisters and help them to have the best experience possible. Cecile lets them do things they would never be allowed to do back in New York, like go out to pick up Chinese food for dinner by themselves in an unfamiliar city. This whole new world brings with it a slew of rules and way of living for Delphine and her sisters. When the girls go to a camp that's run by the Black Panthers, they see a lifestyle that's foreign to them, but Delphine loves seeing the way the people are spreading peace. When the girls are asked to take part in a rally, Delphine is sure that they should not be a part of it, because she knows how her dad and Big Ma would react. After she takes her sisters on a special sightseeing outing around San Francisco, a trip she has planned down to the last penny, they come back to find the police arresting Cecile and two men. What will happen now that the girls have no parent to live with? How will each girl change? Who will help them until it's time for them to go back to New York? What lessons are they learning? Should the girls participate in the rally? You have to read this amazing story to find out what life is like for these three girls in 1960s Oakland.


    One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is the story of three girls learning and growing. They move to a world unlike any they have known before, and a new way of life is unveiled to them. It showed me that you can't go miles away from home and live in a different environment without seeing things in a new light. My heart went out to Delphine as she tried to be a good older sister and a wonderful caretaker. I was so scared for her when her mom was taken to jail. I always feel bad for a character that has to grow up before their time, but at least in this case the girls are able to learn some important lessons. This book opened my eyes to a different culture and made me think about what it might be like for people to have a parent they never really knew. The voices of the girls jumped off the page, and I still feel like I know each one and can picture them easily. I recommend this book to kids in grades four and up because it will help them to see how far we've come as a nation and what life was like not that long ago. This is the first book I have read by this author, but I cannot wait to read more! I recently heard there is a sequel, and I look forward to picking it up. A must read for people that enjoy historical fiction and strong characters!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My main complaint about this book is how little background there is -- this is not a part of American history that most kids study or will understand without some explanation, I think, and Williams-Garcia just drops you right in. I would be all over this as a classroom read with plenty of discussion.

    (Though honestly, I also find that it hasn't stuck with me. Neither the characters nor the setting really sung for me. I was disappointed, given how critically acclaimed the book is.)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the summer of 1968, three young sisters travel on their own, sent by their father from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to visit their mother, who walked out on them when Delphine (the oldest, now 11) was only five. They spend a month trying to get to know this woman, who frequently reminds them that she didn't ask for them to visit and won't stand for them to disturb her peace and quiet while she writes poetry. So they spend their days at a community center run by the Black Panthers, coloring protest signs, handing out political flyers, and learning what it means to be empowered.I love how the two parts of the story - the sisters struggling to come to terms with their mother against the backdrop of Oakland in the late '60s - are woven together so well. It makes a compelling story, made even better by the lively characters of the the three sisters.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams- Garcia is a African American novel about three sister Delphine, Nanetta and Fern who lives in Brooklyn NYC with their father and grandmother and have to visit their distance mother in Oakland CA for their summer vacation. During their visits at their mother house they learn about the Black Panther Party and attend a summer camp that teaches that about Huey Newton, Self Defense and Black Power. Even though the girls' mother is still very distant and secretive, the girls grow to love her in their own way.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Delphine, Vonette and Fern don't know their mother - she left when fern was a baby and took off for California. Deciding that it's time, their father sends them from Brooklyn to spend a summer with mom. On arriving, they discover a mother who doesn't seem to want them there and sends them to spend their days at a Black Panther summer camp.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    captures the time period as well as the kids who lived it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I love how funny it was. Also I loved how the author told the story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a great book to read with students. My class enjoyed it very much, they begged for the next chapter each time we read!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was one of the most Amazing book I had ever read .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautiful book full of sisterhood adventures and truth shares about the Black Panther movement!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    one of the best books i’ve ever read. i’ve loved it since i was a kid. just perfection <3
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's 1968, and Delphine is just eleven years old when she and her two younger sisters (Vonetta, age nine, and Fern, age seven), travel alone on an airplane from New York to Oakland, California, to see their mother Cecile, for the first time since Delphine was five.

    Only Delphine has any real memories of their mother.

    It's Delphine who tells the story, and Delphine who has to take responsibility for her sisters, even after Cecile picks them up at the airport. Cecile is cool, not at all motherly, and pays as little attention to them as possible. The girls long for the motherly affection and connection they've never had, and still don't have.

    Instead, Cecile sends them off each day to Black Panther "summer camp," at the community center. It's where they get breakfast, and it's where they get an education in black history, civil rights, and self-assertion that their father and grandmother, more laid-back and conservative personalities, never gave them.

    Cecile is a poet, and she has a printing press, and to the Panthers she's "Sister Anzilla." (Spelling is a guess; I listened to the audiobook.) She has a somewhat testy relationship with the Black Panthers, happy to send the girls to them for breakfast, summer school, and other activities during their month-long visit, but a bit resentful when the Panthers want her to use her printing press for their flyers and newspaper.

    What we see in this book is a view of the Black Panthers that, as a girl just about Delphine's age, but white, I certainly didn't get at the time.

    And I love Delphine. I had just one younger sister, even younger than Fern, and like Delphine, in many ways I became responsible for her. At that age, you can manage many of the tasks, but the responsibility is more of a burden than adults, overworked themselves and not remembering what it felt like to be that age, often don't recognize. Delphine does her best, mostly does quite well--and gets chewed out when she makes a wrong choice, even though no harm came of it. I wanted to cheer when she spoke up for herself then!

    It's a strange, crazy summer for the girls, especially Delphine, and they learn a lot and even, to some extent, start to find themselves as individuals.

    Recommended.

    I bought this audiobook.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I thought it was a cute read about 3 sisters that fly from NY to CA to meet their mother, who never asked them to visit.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful coming of age book showing the depth of relationships in a turbulent time in the country’s history.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    its just so good I love it
    I hope you will too
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    awesome
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Deftly written story of the 3 Gaither sisters, Delphine, Vonetta and Fern, as they travel to Oakland to meet their mother in a time of revolution and unrest. It's a powerful examination of love and abandonment, a moving portrait of a city and a people in the midst of fury over civil rights, and, oh yeah, also a really engaging children's book that's full of funny characters who have a lot of heart.

    It's only a little bit depressing to see how far we haven't come. I was delighted to discover that Cecile is printing on a letterpress in her kitchen -- she who has the press makes the news.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great read. The weave of these girls' story with historical references was brilliant.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    beautiful
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just loved this book that takes place in the summer of 1968, in the thick of the fight for civil rights. The narrator is the oldest of three girls—Delphine is 11, her sisters Vonetta and Fern are 9 and 7— and live with their father and grandmother in Brooklyn. They are sent to their poet-activist mother in Oakland, California, to stay with her for the summer, to get to know her—though she soon makes it clear to the girls that she didn't send for them and they aren't welcome. She sends them out every morning to the The Black Panther-run People's Center, where they can get breakfast, lunch, an education in freedom and empowerment, and keep out of her way until dinnertime. The story is moving, at times humorous, and most of all, it shows history with women and kids in it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One Crazy Summer is one monumental book! Classified as YA, it's a must read for anyone who ever was a child and/or had siblings. And a difficult family situation. And unknowable adults. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern take their first flight from Brooklyn to Oakland to spend a month with their runaway mom during the 1960s. Told in Delphine's practical and brutally honest voice, the three girls stay true to themselves while immensely widening their worldview and their inner selves. They join the Black Panther Party's free breakfast and school program, and the reader learns the truth about this often maligned group, now so faded into the craziness of the era. Brilliantly written, a fast, heartfelt, memorable read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hmm. Maybe 3.5 stars. I guess this was good, but for some reason it didn't quite hit me. Maybe because there was no leavening humor, and the main character was a bit under-developed - she was more of a role-filler than a real person. Still, it belongs in every 5th-or 6th- grade Social Studies classroom, imo. Now I'm off to look up We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    So fantastic the second time around. I am excited to discuss this with my kids at the library!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Delphine and her sisters Vonetta and Fern have never known their mother Cecile who took off after Fern was born. They've been raised by their Pa and grandmother Big Ma. This summer, Pa decides to send the girls to Oakland to stay with Cecile so they can get to know her. Cecile is a poet and active with the Black Panthers, but as Delphine says, she is no kind of mother. Indifferent Cecile sends the girls off to the free Black Panthers breakfast served everyday and tells them not to come home until dinner. Delphine takes it upon herself to look out for her sisters during their visit, attending the Panthers' summer camp and learning about revolution and power to the people. Delphine doesn't allow herself to get too swayed by all the revolutionary talk but she does absorb enough to finally understand her mother. Delphine is a strong, observant, and practical girl, taking the initiative when she needs to. A wonderful character to get to know!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1968 Oakland, CA, Black Panthers, abandonment by mother
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Delphine, Vonetta and Fern are sent to Oakland, CA by their Pa so they can meet the mother who abandoned them right after Fern was born. When they get to Oakland Cecile is nothing that they expected. The girls wanted her to shower them with affection but Cecile just isn't like that. As far as Cecile is concerned she didn't ask them to come visit and they should stay out of her way so she sends the girls to the Black Panther's summer camp every day.

    Delphine, Vonetta and Fern are all wonderful characters. I found them funny, interesting and a little bit sad. I wanted Delphine to be a kid so bad that it hurt sometimes. I thought Fern was so much smarter than anyone gave her credit for and Vonnetta has that interesting mix of total ham and fear of attention that I have always found intriguing. Cecile is definitely a litte bit crazy and I spent a chunk of the book thing Pa was crazy for sending them out Oakland. I thought Cecile's confessions to Delphine finally made her seem more normal and human. I had spent much of the book wondering if she had some kind of mental illenss and once the details were out a lot of things made sense. The historical details were really interesting and amazing and there were definitely a lot of parallels between what went on in this book and The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano.

    Due to some crazy time issues this book actually took a lot longer for me to read than it should of. I bring it up b/c I think this books short length would make it a great historical fiction read for a reluctant reader and I feel like read a historical fiction book is a middle school assignment on a fairly regular basis (I get it at least once a year.)

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is going to be a very short review because I can't imagine a better book to help teach young readers about the civil rights. The writing was perfect and the storytelling was exactly how it should have been. All I can say in reviewing this book is simply, "Get it. Get it and read it over and over again. Read it to your children and recommend it to everyone."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is a perfect introduction to the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers for young adult readers. Delphine and her sisters are believable and individually characterized. The mom, Cecil, is credible as well. This story of the girls' summer with their mom who abandoned them years ago is realistic, and engaging. The girls find themselves at the center of the Black Panther movement in Oakland, CA in the 1960s. The book skillfully blends historical accuracy with fictionalized characters. It is an enjoyable and informative read.This book would be a good one to include in a unit on the Civil Rights Movement. It is also a good source of some information about the Black Panthers. It is a good book to use when talking about family, and family relationships.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Entertaining and gave a great perspective of how it might have felt to be a young black girl from the east coast spending a summer in Oakland buring the Black Panther time frame.Easy read with lots to think about. Recommended!

Book preview

One Crazy Summer - Rita Williams-Garcia

Cassius Clay Clouds

Good thing the plane had seat belts and we’d been strapped in tight before takeoff. Without them, that last jolt would have been enough to throw Vonetta into orbit and Fern across the aisle. Still, I anchored myself and my sisters best as I could to brace us for whatever came next. Those clouds weren’t through with us yet and dealt another Cassius Clay–left–and–a–right jab to the body of our Boeing 727.

Vonetta shrieked, then stuck her thumb in her mouth. Fern bit down on Miss Patty Cake’s pink plastic arm. I kept my whimper to myself. It was bad enough my insides squeezed in and stretched out like a monkey grinder’s accordion—no need to let anyone know how frightened I was.

I took a breath so, when my mouth finally opened, I’d sound like myself and not like some scared rabbit. It’s just the clouds bumping, I told my sisters. Like they bumped over Detroit and Chicago and Denver.

Vonetta pulled her thumb out of her mouth and put her head in her lap. Fern held on to Miss Patty Cake. They listened to me.

We push our way up in the clouds; the clouds get mad and push back. Like you and Fern fighting over red and gold crayons. I didn’t know about clouds fighting and pushing for a fact, but I had to tell my sisters something. As long as Vonetta kept her fear to one shriek and Fern kept hers to biting Miss Patty Cake, I kept on spinning straw, making everything all right. That’s mainly what I do. Keep Vonetta and Fern in line. The last thing Pa and Big Ma wanted to hear was how we made a grand Negro spectacle of ourselves thirty thousand feet up in the air around all these white people.

You know how Papa is, I told them. No way he’d put us on a plane if it were dangerous.

They halfway believed me. Just as I had that soft plastic arm out of Fern’s mouth, those Cassius Clay–fighting clouds threw our 727 another jab.

Big Ma—that’s Pa’s mother—still says Cassius Clay. Pa says Muhammad Ali or just Ali. I slide back and forth from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. Whatever picture comes to mind. With Cassius Clay you hear the clash of fists, like the plane getting jabbed and punched. With Muhammad Ali you see a mighty mountain, greater than Everest, and can’t no one knock down a mountain.

All the way to the airport, Pa had tried to act like he was dropping off three sacks of wash at the Laundromat. I’d seen through Pa. He’s no Vonetta, putting on performances. He has only one or two faces, nothing hidden, nothing exaggerated. Even though it had been his idea that we fly out to Oakland to see Cecile, Pa’d never once said how exciting our trip would be. He just said that seeing Cecile was something whose time had come. That it had to be done. Just because he decided it was time for us to see her didn’t mean he wanted us to go.

My sisters and I had stayed up practically all night California dreaming about what seemed like the other side of the world. We saw ourselves riding wild waves on surfboards, picking oranges and apples off fruit trees, filling our autograph books with signatures from movie stars we’d see in soda shops. Even better, we saw ourselves going to Disneyland.

We had watched airplanes lift up and fly off into blue sky as we neared the airport. Every time another airliner flew overhead, leaving a trail of white and gray smoke, Big Ma fanned herself and asked, Jesus, why?

Big Ma had kept quiet long enough. Once inside the terminal, she let it all hang out. She told Pa, I don’t mind saying it, but this isn’t right. Coming out to Idlewild and putting these girls on a plane so Cecile can see what she left behind. If she wants to see, let her get on an airplane and fly out to New York.

Big Ma doesn’t care if President Kennedy’s face is on the half-dollar or if the airport is now officially named after him. She calls the airport by its old name, Idlewild. Don’t get me wrong. Big Ma was as mad and sad as anyone when they killed the president. It’s change she has no pity on. However things are stamped in Big Ma’s mind is how they will be, now and forever. Idlewild will never be JFK. Cassius Clay will never be Muhammad Ali. Cecile will never be anything other than Cecile.

I can’t say I blamed Big Ma for feeling the way she did. I certainly didn’t forgive Cecile.

When Cecile left, Fern wasn’t on the bottle. Vonetta could walk but wanted to be picked up. I was four going on five. Pa wasn’t sick, but he wasn’t doing well, either. That was when Big Ma came up from Alabama to see about us.

Even though Big Ma read her Scripture daily, she hadn’t considered forgiveness where Cecile was concerned. Cecile wasn’t what the Bible meant when it spoke of love and forgiveness. Only judgment, and believe me, Big Ma had plenty of judgment for Cecile. So even if Cecile showed up on Papa’s welcome mat, Big Ma wouldn’t swing the front door open.

That was why Pa had put us on a plane to Oakland. Either Cecile wouldn’t come back to Brooklyn or she wasn’t welcome. Honestly, I don’t think Pa could choose between Big Ma and Cecile even after Cecile left him. And us. Even after Cecile proved Big Ma right.

How can you send them to Oakland? Oakland’s nothing but a boiling pot of trouble cooking. All them riots.

Pa has a respectful way of ignoring Big Ma. I wanted to smile. He’s good at it.

A shrill voice had announced the departing flight to Oakland. All three of us had butterflies. Our first airplane ride. Way up above Brooklyn. Above New York. Above the world! Although I could at least keep still, Vonetta and Fern stamped their feet like holy rollers at a revival meeting.

Big Ma had grabbed them by the first scruff of fabric she could get ahold of, bent down, and told them to act right. There weren’t too many of us in the waiting area, and too many of them were staring.

I’d taken a quick count out of habit. Vonetta, Fern, and I were the only Negro children. There were two soldier boys in green uniforms who didn’t look any older than Uncle Darnell—high school cap and gown one day, army boots and basic training four days later. Two teenage girls with Afros. Maybe they were college students. And one lady dressed like Jackie Kennedy, carrying a small oval suitcase.

Big Ma had also scouted around the waiting room. I knew she worried that we’d be mistreated in some way and sought out a grown, brown face to look out for us. Big Ma turned her nose up at the college girls with Afros in favor of the Negro lady in the square sunglasses and snappy suit toting the equally snappy oval bag. Big Ma made eye contact with her. When we lined up, she’d told the Negro Jackie Kennedy, These my grandbabies. You look out for them, y’hear. The snappy Negro lady had been nice enough to smile but hadn’t returned the look that Big Ma expected—and Big Ma had expected the look Negro people silently pass each other. She’d expected this stranger to say, as if she were a neighbor, They’re as good as my own. I’ll make sure they don’t misbehave or be an embarrassment to the Negro race. A blank movie-star smile had been all she passed to Big Ma. That lady had only been looking out for her plane seat.

Papa had already given me a paper with the phone number to our house, which I knew by heart, and the phone number to his job. He had already told me that his job number was for emergencies only and not for how you doing chats. Last night he had also given me an envelope with two hundred dollars in ten-and twenty-dollar bills to put in my suitcase. Instead, I’d folded the bills and stuffed them in my tennis shoe before we left Herkimer Street. Walking on that mound of money felt weird at first, but at least I knew the money was safe.

Papa had kissed Vonetta and Fern and told me to look after my sisters. Even though looking after them would have been nothing new, I kissed him and said, I will, Papa.

When the line to the ticket taker had begun to move, Big Ma had gotten teary and mushed us up in her loose-fitting, violet and green muumuu dress. Better come on and get some loving now . . . She hadn’t had to finish the rest about how this might be the last time in a long while for kissing and hugging. A flash of memory told me Cecile wasn’t one for kissing and hugging.

I had a lot of those memories clicking before me like projector slides in the dark. Lots of pictures, smells, and sounds flashing in and out. Mostly about Cecile, all going way, way back. And what I didn’t remember clearly, Uncle Darnell always filled in. At least Uncle Darnell remembers Cecile kindly.

Golden Gate Bridge

I glanced at my Timex. Among the three of us, I was the only one responsible enough to keep and wear a wristwatch. Vonetta let a girl see hers and never got it back. Fern was still learning to tell time, so I kept hers in my drawer until she was ready to wear it.

Six and a half hours had passed since we’d hugged Big Ma and kissed Pa at John F. Kennedy Airport. The clouds had made peace with our Boeing 727. It was safe to breathe. I stretched as far as my legs could go.

With these long legs I’m taken for twelve or thirteen, even a little older. No one ever guesses eleven going on twelve on their first try. More than my long legs, I’m sure it’s my plain face that throws them off. Not plain as in homely plain, but even plain. Steady. I’m not nine or seven and given to squealing or oohing like Vonetta and Fern. I just let my plain face and plain words speak for me. That way, no one ever says, Huh? to me. They know exactly what I mean.

We were long gone from thick, white clouds, the plane steadily climbing down. The intercom crackled, and the pilot made an announcement about the descent and altitude and that we would be landing in ten minutes. I let all of that pass by until he said, . . . and to your left as we circle the bay is the Golden Gate Bridge.

I was now a liar! A stone-faced liar. I wanted to squeal and ooh like a seven-year-old meeting Tinker Bell. I had read about the Golden Gate Bridge in class. The California gold rush. The Chinese immigrants building the railroads connecting east to west. It wasn’t every day you saw a live picture of what you read about in your textbook. I wanted to look down from above the world and see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Being stuck in the middle seat, I was mad at myself. Of the three of us, I was the first to board the 727. Why hadn’t I taken the window seat when I’d had my chance?

Instead of the squeal I knew wouldn’t come out of me in the first place, I sighed. No use crying about it now. The truth was, one pout from either Vonetta or Fern and I would have given up the window seat.

This was the only way it could be: Vonetta and Fern on either side and me in between them. Six and a half hours was too long a time to have Vonetta and Fern strapped side by side picking at each other. We would have been the grand Negro spectacle that Big Ma had scolded us against becoming when we were back in Brooklyn.

Still, the Golden Gate Bridge was getting away from me. I figured at least one of us should see it. And that should be the one who read about it in class.

Look, Vonetta. Look down at the bridge!

Vonetta stayed tight to her stubborn curl, her chin in her lap. I’m not looking.

I turned to my right and got a mouthful of hair and barrettes. Fern had leaned over from her aisle seat. I wanna see. Make her switch. To Fern, the Golden Gate Bridge sounded like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. She halfway believed in things not true and didn’t know where fairy tales ended. No use spoiling it for her. She’d figure things out soon enough.

Fern was wriggling out of her seat belt and climbing on me to get a glimpse. This was how it was at home. Why should a thousand feet up in the air make any difference? Sit back, Fern, I said in my plain, firm voice. We’re getting ready to land.

She pouted but sat back down. I tightened her seat belt. Vonetta’s face stayed in her lap. That was just pitiful.

Go look down, Vonetta, I said. Before you miss it.

Vonetta refused to pry her chin from her lap. She stuck her thumb back in her mouth and closed her eyes.

I wasn’t worried about Vonetta. Once we got on the ground, she’d be her showy self again and this fraidycat episode would be long faded.

As we continued to circle the bay above the Golden Gate Bridge, I felt like I was

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