One Crazy Summer

Although many people believe she is mature for her age, Delphine cannot help but get excited when the pilot announces that the plane is nearing the Golden Gate Bridge. Stuck in the middle seat, Delphine encourages Vonetta to look out at the bridge from her window seat, but Vonetta just pouts. Meanwhile, Fern, tired after the long flight, squirms and fusses. Overcome by her own desire to see the bridge, Delphine presses against her sister to get a peek. Her sisters protest loudly, and a stewardess scolds them. Embarrassed, Delphine knows that the girls have made a spectacle of themselves, but she is satisfied that she got to see a small portion of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The lady Big Ma asked to watch the girls deplanes immediately after the plane lands in Oakland, leaving the girls in the care of a stewardess. As they wait with the stewardess for Cecile, Delphine thinks about how it is a “statement of fact” (14) that Cecile is their biological mother, even though she abandoned them. The girls sing a lullaby about a mama and a baby, but they all know that Cecile has not been a mother to them since she left. Delphine is appalled and offended when the stewardess allows a stranger to approach the girls and offer them money for being so well mannered. The stewardess chides Delphine for not recognizing the gesture as kindness, and the stranger drops change in Fern’s hand before Delphine can protest.

Just as the stewardess begins to get restless, Delphine points out a woman who is hesitating next to a cigarette machine. The woman is oddly dressed, in big sunglasses, a hat pulled over her eyes, and men’s pants. After confirming that the woman's name is Cecile, the stewardess hands the girls over to her and quickly disappears. Cecile looks like a secret agent to Delphine. Without bothering to help Fern, Cecile quickly walks out of the airport. The girls can barely keep up with her. When Delphine tells her that Fern needs help, Cecile merely tells the girls to match her pace. Their striking mother catches the eyes of many people in the airport.

A man who calls Cecile “Zilla” is waiting for them in a cab. Cecile angrily tells the girls to get in the car, but Delphine—eager to reassure her confused and insecure sisters—takes her time as she puts the luggage in the cab. On the way to Cecile’s house, the man and Cecile smoke cigarettes, causing the girls to cough. When they arrive at a bus stop, they exit the cab and wait for a bus that will take them the rest of the way to Cecile’s house. At the bus stop, Cecile moves rapidly and hides behind her shades, as if she is ashamed to be seen with the girls. Having suffered many embarrassing questions about her missing mother for years, Delphine feels no pity for Cecile. Instead, she worries about what the next 28 days with Cecile will be like.

Big Ma always said that Cecile “lived on the street. The park bench was her bed. She lived in a hole in the wall” (23). Since Delphine was almost 6 (the point at which her mother left), she took these expressions literally. She is shocked when she sees Cecile’s green stucco house, complete with a carport and palm tree. Delphine remembers that her father and mother used to have angry conversations about Cecile writing and drawing on the walls back home. So, she is surprised that the walls in Cecile’s house are a bland beige. Cecile gruffly tells the girls where their room and the bathroom are. When Vonetta asks Cecile where the TV is, Cecile’s response is odd. She mutters to herself that she should have gotten rid of the girls in Mexico when she had the chance (likely a reference to abortion). As she settles the girls into the trundle bed in their room, Delphine tells her sisters that “Big Ma was right. Cecile was no kind of mother. Cecile didn’t want us. Cecile was crazy” (28).