One Crazy Summer

Delphine thinks changing one’s name is disturbing because she believes given names are too important to change on a whim: “Your name is who you are and how you’re known even when you do something great or something dumb” (80). Thinking about the question of names causes Delphine to have flashbacks—her mother listening to Sarah Vaughn and the smell of smoke—from when she was very young.

When she was younger, Delphine thought her name was glamorous and special. One day, after the boys at her school teased her by singing the theme song of Flipper, a show about an adventurous dolphin, Delphine discovered that her name was not unique and that it is an adjective associated with dolphins. She also learned that Cecile has a penchant for names that sound exotic. Cecile created Vonetta’s name to honor Sarah Vaughn, and the name Cecile wanted to give Fern was so exotic that it caused the fight that led Cecile to leave her family. Delphine was so disappointed with the etymology of her name when she was younger that she concluded Cecile had left her with nothing.

The next day, at the People's Center, other children tease Fern about Miss Patty Cake while everyone colors posters of revolutionary slogans and the names of important Black Panthers, like Huey Newton (a troublemaker in Big Ma’s opinion). Fern begins to sing the “la-la” chorus from a song that the Gaither sisters like to sing together “to drown out ugly” (89). Delphine is surprised when Vonetta doesn’t stand up for Fern when one of the other girls continues to pick on her, and she defends Fern on her own. Sister Mukumbu forces Delphine and the other girl to make up. Vonetta says she is tired of sticking up for Fern and even calls her a baby. 

When Fern threatens to tell on Vonetta, Vonetta points out that Cecile won’t care and that Big Ma and their dad are far away. Delphine tells Vonetta to shut up, which she does. Later that night, after another takeout dinner, Fern discovers that Vonetta has colored all over Miss Patty Cake with a black marker. Cecile doesn’t intervene when Vonetta and Fern get into a fight, and she tells Fern that she is too old to be carrying around a doll anyway.

Despite her best efforts, Delphine is unable to clean Miss Patty Cake. When the girls leave for the center the next day, Fern doesn't take the doll with her, and Vonetta refuses to walk alongside her sisters. Vonetta spends the day socializing with Janice Ankton, another girl with two sisters. 

At the center, Sister Mukumbu serves the children grapes and then explains that the people who picked the grapes work under poor, exploitative conditions. Everyone feels bad about eating the grapes, and they are relieved when they are sent to a nearby park. Fern and Delphine stay behind to count out stacks of the Black Panthers’ weekly periodical, which costs twenty-five cents per issue. 

Although she knows it’s dishonest to read the paper without paying for it, Delphine systematically reads through the periodical as she makes her stacks. In the paper, she sees Huey Newton and a picture of people holding signs that look like the ones that she helped to color—a thought that makes her feel like she is part of the revolution that everyone is always talking about at the center. 

Delphine is so caught up in reading the papers that she loses count of them and makes sloppy stacks. Sister Mukumbu, who realizes what Delphine has been doing, asks Delphine if she wants a copy of the paper. Embarrassed that she has been caught, Delphine pays for the paper with the dimes she has been saving for a phone call to her father and Big Ma.

Vonetta and Fern’s stomachs are upset from a continual diet of Chinese takeout, so Delphine decides that they should have a home-cooked meal. Needing a way to pay for groceries, Delphine asks Cecile for money, who hands it over without question. That afternoon, Delphine shops at Safeway for the same plain food that the Gaithers eat back home in Brooklyn. There is plenty of change left over for a phone call home.

Once she returns home, Delphine quietly and calmly tells Cecile that she needs to use the kitchen to cook. Cecile is angry and tells Delphine that she had better not get anything on her work. As Delphine prepares the food, Cecile watches her and  asks questions about what Delphine is doing. Talking with her mother vaguely reminds Delphine of being in the kitchen with Cecile years ago in Brooklyn. Cecile returns to her work, and Delphine realizes two things as she watches her mother work. First, “Cecile was fixed in prayer” (109). Second, Delphine would only be allowed to stay in the kitchen if she did not disturb her mother's work. Delphine also realizes that Vonetta and Fern are not allowed in the kitchen because they would disturb its quiet.

After dinner, Cecile tells Delphine to wash all the dishes and advises her not to be so quick to take on burdens. Delphine listens, but she also thinks to herself that she has to do for her sisters what Cecile will not.