1620 BANK STREET by C. Rosalind Bell (an excerpt)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(The lights come up on the Greene\u2019s dining room. It is 6:30 p.m., a late southwestern Louisiana August<\/strong>. A nervous energy permeates. MR. GREENE<\/strong>\/Drew is reading<\/strong> aloud from the newspaper, his daughters, YVETTE<\/strong>, 8 years old and CLARESSA<\/strong>, 12, set the table. MRS. GREENE brings in platters from the kitchen. They finally all sit. MRS. GREENE pops right up from her chair.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n I forgot the rolls!<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n What?<\/p>\n What? What?<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Why are you looking at me like that?<\/p>\n Like what?<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Like that? Mama! Come on! I\u2019m starving!<\/p>\n I\u2019m looking at my baby.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Daddy, stop it . . .<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n Yeah, daddy, stop it.<\/p>\n \u00a0Oh you\u2019re my baby, too, my itsy bitsy teenie weenie baby.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n Yes, I am!<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Good for you because I am nobody\u2019s baby. Mama! Come on! I am 12 going on 13! I am closer to 18 than I am to 12.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n No you\u2019re not, you\u2019re 12, CLARESSA, how could you be . . .<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Shut up little, bitty baby! I\u2019m talking in terms philosophical.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n What\u2019s all the commotion? Dinner is not the place for argument, young lady.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n See, Mama knows I\u2019m a young lady.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE returns to the table.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Mama also knows that you know the dinner table is reserved for us to go over our day . . . \u00a0pleasantly, might I add.<\/p>\n SHE nods to MR. GREENE.<\/p>\n In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n The Lord is My Shepherd I shall not want.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Let there be peace on earth.<\/p>\n Can\u2019t argue with that.<\/p>\n (MRS. GREENE takes tops off the platters of food: steaming, carrots\/peas, catfish, mustard greens, hot rolls.<\/strong>)<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Mama, this should be on the cover of Good Housekeeping. Yeah! Catfish!<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n I thought you said you didn\u2019t like meat, remember Daddy, she said she wasn\u2019t going to eat meat anymore?<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n What is wrong with you? Fish is not meat!<\/p>\n That\u2019s okay, CLARESSA, you do not have to eat meat anymore, there\u2019ll be more rib eyes for the rest of us.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n And hot dogs! And hamburgers!<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Like I\u2019m supposed to give a care? Mama, can we go downtown tomorrow, better yet, is it okay if I go to Riff\u2019s and bring some clothes home on approval? Only 18 days before school starts. Reynaud Junior High School\u2014here I come! (She does a \u201cV\u201d with arms stretched out.)<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n (Looking at MR. GREENE but talking to CLARESSA.) Honey, there\u2019s something we need to talk to you about.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Yes? What? You want me to go to Muller\u2019s instead? That\u2019s fine . . . I just thought that . . .<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n You\u2019re not going to Reynaud.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Yvette!<\/p>\n Poll Parrot.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Shut up, Yvette!<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n Can\u2019t make me. You\u2019re not going to the Negro school.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n What a retard! It\u2019s Afro American, stupid.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n That\u2019s enough of the two of you. And we do not call each other names at this house, do I make myself clear? Honey (She looks at MR. GREENE) go ahead, you tell her.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Tell me what?<\/p>\n Your mother and I love you very, very much.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n Me too, you love me very, very much.<\/p>\n Of course we do Little Petunia Head. Claressa, your mother and I have hardly had a good night\u2019s rest since this integration thing came to Lake Charles.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Closing down your daddy\u2019s school, might I add. And sending our kind hither, thither and yon . . . And don\u2019t think . . .<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n I don\u2019t understand what\u2019s that got to do with me<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n We\u2019ve deliberated long and hard . . . what\u2019s best for our child? Where would she fare better? You\u2019ve gotten to an age . . .<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Mama, No!<\/p>\n Listen to your mother, Claressa, hear us out.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n I don\u2019t get this, nobody talked to me, you never said a word to me about this!<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n We\u2019re doing this for your own good<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n No you\u2019re not! You wouldn\u2019t be doing this to me!<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n You\u2019ll have to wear a uniform, like a nun, my sister will be a sister.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Catholic School! You\u2019re sending me to Catholic School! What have I done to deserve this? Daddy, you hate the Catholics? Somebody please tell me what I\u2019ve done to deserve this? We\u2019re not even Catholic! This is crazy!<\/p>\n I disagree vehemently with Catholicism, Claressa. But I\u2019ve never, ever said I hated them. Vast difference, young lady. and you have the emphasis in the wrong place: \u2018We\u2019re not Catholic.\u2019 What you should be saying is \u201cthey\u2019re not Methodists.\u201d But I\u2019ll forgive them for that\u2014as long as they don\u2019t try to indoctrinate you. They have a long history of that.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n I won\u2019t give them the chance cause I\u2019m not going.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Because, not \u2018cause.\u2019 I do not need you to go lax with your enunciation. These white people are always looking for some way to belittle you, or shake their head to one another like \u201cum huh, see there, I told you,\u201d so you need to take special care with your speech around them . . . don\u2019t give them any excuse.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n Huh?<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n You know exactly what I\u2019m talking about.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n I\u2019m not going . . . daddy, please!<\/p>\n Sometimes you need to just listen to your parents, Claressa. I know it\u2019s hard to believe, but we really do know something of how the world works. And on this subject we need you to not buck us.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Try to see this from our view.<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n It\u2019s all girls, too! No boys like at Reynaud!<\/p>\n (MR. and MRS. GREENE look at each other, puzzled.)<\/p>\n All right, Dick Tracy, where on earth did you get this information?<\/p>\n YVETTE<\/p>\n You told Mr. Conley when he delivered the mail and Mr. Conley told Miss Annabel, next door. And she said Dad you told her CLARESSA was accepted at the white school.<\/p>\n (MRS. GREENE rolls her eyes at MR. GREENE, shaking her head.)<\/p>\n It is the Catholic School\u2014not the white school\u2014at least not anymore it won\u2019t be. One day you will understand this CLARESSA and thank us.<\/p>\n (CLARESSA looks at him like she could choke him and bats her eyes tightly.)<\/p>\n I\u2019ll tell you this, I\u2019ll not have my children going through the world with their feet on backwards\u2014this is a new day. We want you to realize that you are just as good as any of them. Just as smart, just as full of bloom.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n I already know all of that! What I don\u2019t know is why you\u2019re doing this to me! I know who I am!<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Claressa, this integration is causing all sorts of craziness. Our people, as usual are getting the short end of the stick. Your cousin Pearl . . . well, they\u2019re putting her back into the classroom and she can\u2019t do a thing about it. Been a principal for twenty-seven years . . . yet and still they see fit to close her school and relieve her of her position. It\u2019s that kind of thing we\u2019re up against in the public school.<\/p>\n Your mother\u2019s right, honey. All your life whatever school you\u2019ve been to, kindergarten through 6th<\/sup> grade, either your mama was at that school or your were at my school or in the case of kindergarten, well, we knew all of your teachers. Those days are over. We don\u2019t know what kind of white people they\u2019ll send to Reynaud.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n And I\u2019m not willing to find out. That\u2019s why we can\u2019t take a chance. These white folks are not taking this thing like a cake walk. Fighting it every way they can.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n You don\u2019t know the teachers at the Catholic School . . . they\u2019ll be white. You don\u2019t know those white people either.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Ah, but you\u2019re half right. We don\u2019t know the folks at St. Charles Academy like we do your past teachers, but we feel certain that what you\u2019ll experience at the catholic school will be light years away from what you\u2019d have to go through at Reynaud.<\/p>\n You see, if I know anything about Catholics it is this: They understand money . . . so we\u2019re paying . . .<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Dearly . . .<\/p>\n We\u2019re paying tuition for you to attend. That way, any hint of shenanigans, anybody look at you crooked, they\u2019ll nip it in the bud.<\/p>\n MRS. GREENE<\/p>\n Sister Therese assured us of that fact. Gave us her word.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n What just happened to my life? What did you do with my life? Just like that, no questions asked you\u2019ve come and rearranged my life . . . what about my friends, did you all think of that? What about Pat, and Ronnie and Angelina?<\/p>\n You make friends easily, CLARESSA, you\u2019ll make new friends.<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n You go then, daddy. You go make new friends! I want to be with my friends. This is crazy . . . Pat an Ronnie are Catholic and they\u2019re not going . . . nobody\u2019s making them go!<\/p>\n Honey their parent\u2019s do not have the . . .<\/p>\n CLARESSA<\/p>\n A uniform! I have to wear a uniform! All girls! Nuns! White people! Oh my god! Mama, I\u2019ve caught up on all my chores. I stayed within my allowance this month . . . I just don\u2019t understand why I\u2019m being punished like this! You hate me! What have I done?! I tell you I do not want to go! I\u2019m not going! (Crying she gets up from the table, dabbing her eyes with the napkin.) And you can use your dear money to buy me a casket after I slit my throat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1620 BANK STREET by C. Rosalind Bell (an excerpt) (The lights come up on the Greene\u2019s dining room. It is 6:30 p.m., a late southwestern Louisiana August. A nervous energy permeates. MR. GREENE\/Drew is reading aloud from the newspaper, his daughters, YVETTE, 8 years old and CLARESSA, 12, set the table. MRS. GREENE brings …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":68,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-73","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73\/revisions\/75"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crosalindbell.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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