mommy? Do you love me, baby?”
After some minutes, the moment passed. I put my girl back in her seat and drove in the direction of home.
PEOPLE SAY, THAT which doesn’t kil you makes you stronger. But they are wrong. What doesn’t kil you, doesn’t kil you. That’s al you get.
Sometimes, you just have to hope that’s enough.
acknowledgments
Thanks first to Team T, who read this story before it was a book, back when I was stil afraid of it: Sarah Schulman, Nichel e Tramble, Al ison Clark, Joy Castro, Renee Simms, Bryn Chancel or, Alesia Parker, and Virginia Fowler. My sister, Maxine Kennedy, is my whole entire heart.
The United States Artists Foundation and the Col ins Family came through when I was just about ready to give up. The family of Jenny McKean Moore and George Washington University granted me a year to write and to work with DC’s finest writers. Rutgers-Newark University, the MacDowel Colony, the Corporation of Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, and the Virginia Center for the Arts provided generous support. Thanks, as wel , to Dianne Marie Pinderhughes, who sheltered me during the home stretch.
My aces: Rigoberto, Natasha, Kiyana Sakena, Jafari, Nichel e, Jeree, Lauren, Jaci, Alice, Jim, Evie, Anne, Deborah, Jayne Anne, Cozbi, Dolen, Aisha, and Uncle Ricky held me down when I was in real danger of flying away. Dr. June MacDonald Aldridge taught me how to keep it classy, and Pearl Cleage showed me how to keep it real.
For my fairy godmother, Judy Blume, I have astonished gratitude. My agents Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich are the very best in the business.
Algonquin Books and I have been making eyes at each other for a decade. Thank you, Elisabeth Scharlatt, for making it happen. My editor, Andra Mil er, cares about this story as much as I do. You wil see her careful attention on every page.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
A Daughter is a Colony
PART I Dana Lynn Yarboro
1 THE SECRET
2 A SORT OF CREEPING LOVE
3 NOTES ON PRECOCITY
4 GRAND GESTURE
5 HEART DREAMS
6 THINK ABOUT IT
7 I DARE YOU
8 FIG LEAF
9 NO QUARREL
10 UNCLE RALEIGH
11 THE PRIZEWINNER
PART I Bunny Chaurisse Witherspoon
12 A PECULIAR START
13 ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DRIVEN SNOW
14 A SILVER GIRL
15 GIRLS ARE TOO MESSY
16 THE REST, LIKE THEY SAY, IS HISTORY
17 TIME AND A HALF
18 LOVE AND HAPPINESS
19 UP A NOTCH
20 BLOWOUT
21 THE MEN ALL PAUSED
22 SKIN PAIN
23 TARA
24 A MIGHTY POOR RAT
25 QUIZ SHOW
