Such a Fun Age

After Alix’s friends leave Emira alone to go upstairs, Emira is grateful to greet Briar and invite her to meet Kelley. He jokes with Briar immediately, making Emira feel “pleased” (163). As Tamra, Jodi, Rachel, and Alix come back downstairs, Kelley asks Emira to go talk with him, but Tamra interrupts and takes Emira to the kitchen for help folding silverware. Emira suspects this is a race-based ruse to get her away from the party; this isn’t the first time “another black party guest was foisted on her by a well-meaning but ignorant host, but Tamra appeared to be conducting this interaction on her own” (165). Emira finally slips away, finding Kelley on his way to the bathroom. He asks her to check her phone and she finds three texts: “Your boss was my high school girlfriend […] The one who only flew first class […] I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE” (166). 

As the group of guests settles at the Thanksgiving table, Emira compliments Alix’s decorating. Embarrassed, Alix feels incapable of explaining the “joke” (167), but Jodi supports Alix by saying how lovely everything is. People begin passing the food and Alix thinks that “everything sounded like the Thanksgiving she wanted, which made the evening even more eerie” (168).

The conversation turns to how Emira and Kelley met; Alix explains that they “met on the train” (169), but Kelley refutes the story and explains about the incident at Market Depot. The guests learn about the video that Kelley took. Emira turns the conversation to how Peter and Alix met, and Peter tells the story of how she had flagged him down and bought him a beer. Kelley asks about Alix’s book, which leads into an awkward exchange. Eventually, Peter cuts in to make a toast to the “amazing women” (174) at the table. 

Emira feels thoroughly embarrassed by Peter’s effusive toast, and her mind is swirling with questions about Kelley’s reactions and the entire Thanksgiving scene. As Tamra raises the question of Emira going to grad school, Emira notices Briar looking like she is “more glazed and far away” (177). Luckily, right after Tamra asks what her “big goal” (177) is going to be, Emira catches Briar gagging and dives across the table “to cover the toddler’s mouth” (178). 

Alix spends a significant amount of time feeling re-absorbed by her teenage infatuation with Kelley, to whom she had lost her virginity. Alix watches as Kelley catches Emira’s waist to make sure that she didn’t fall as she jumped across the table; Alix remembers being “stead[ied]” (180) by Kelley during their relationship in high school. Alix feels a surge of jealousy and almost snatches Emira away from Kelley before Jodi grabs Alix’s arm to bring her back to reality.  

As soon as Emira removes the napkin from Briar’s face, she thinks about how rarely Briar cried, just before Briar begins screaming. Emira swiftly carries Briar out of the room, realizing that “it as alarming to know that this type of crying had been inside Briar all along, that she’d always been capable of it and just chosen not to” (182). Sobbing, Briar begins to express herself: “I don’t like when Catherine bees the littlest favorite to Mama” (182). Emira calmly and lovingly explains to Briar that in families, there are “no favorites” (183), despite the fact that Emira knows that there are favorites even in her own family.

When Emira reemerges from the bathroom, some of the guests are beginning to leave; Emira and Kelley follow suit. Before heading up to his apartment, Kelley says he needs a drink and they head into a bar with only a few other patrons, all white men. Though she is uncomfortable, Emira searches for a way to break the ice with Kelley. As he begins to talk, Emira has to shift her idea of who Mrs. Chamberlain is from her preconceived assumptions.

Kelley describes a person with a “racially charged history” (187), and Emira thinks to herself that “if she weren’t working for this Mrs. Chamberlain, she’d probably be working for another one” (187). Kelley tells Emira the story of how Robbie Cormier lost his scholarship and how terrible he felt about having dated this girl who could act that way. He describes the black woman who worked for her and argues that the polo Emira wears at the Chamberlain’s house is much like the uniform the Murphy’s maid wore. Emira defends Alix and argues with Kelley, who begins getting angrier.

The couple parries back and forth, with Kelley expressing his feelings about Alix being racist and Emira beginning to snap at Kelley about his own racist, classist behaviors. Emira wonders if they are “really gonna do this” (194). By the end of the argument, they both calm down and are ready to leave the bar.