Brown Girl, Brownstones

Silla’s secret plan to sell the land is a great burden to Selina. Two weeks after the scene in the kitchen, Selina reveals Silla’s scheme to her father. Deighton tells her not to worry because the plans are empty threats, and he plots to buy the girls whatever they want once he begins earning money as a trumpet player. Selina is not reassured.

Selina discovers that Ina has been eavesdropping on this conversation, and the two girls quarrel over who is Deighton’s favorite. As the argument heats up, the sisters come to blows. When Deighton breaks up the fight, Ina runs away to her room. Exasperated, Deighton accuses Selina of being her mother’s child. Selina is pained by this accusation and overwhelmed by the sound of Miss Suggie, a boarder in the family’s rented house, entertaining a man in her room.

Selina runs to see Miss Thompson at the beauty parlor after the fight. Miss Thompson tells Selina to stop expecting adults to make any sense at all—they don’t listen to anyone because they are too wrapped up in themselves. Against Miss Thompson’s advice, Selina decides to confront her mother at her new job at a factory.

Silla’s shift is almost over when Selina arrives, so Selina waits and watches with “grudging affection” (89) as her mother works an industrial lathe on the loud, overwhelming factory floor. While the other workers look tiny compared to the equipment they operate, Silla “was like the machines, some larger form of life with an awesome beauty all her own” (90).

On the trolley ride home, Silla reveals how angry she is that Selina boldly came to see her at her job. Silla tells Selina she has to learn how life really works: The world is not on Selina’s side, and Selina must learn to think things through before acting. Using herself as an example, Silla tells Selina about how she took the time to learn to work the lathe before convincing her racist employers that they should give a black woman the chance to control one.

Selina is surprised when her mother confesses that she would love to buy some of the fancy clothes in the store windows that flash by the trolley. When Silla tells Selina that she intends to buy two dresses for the girls to wear to an upcoming wedding, Selina is disgusted by her mother’s naked desire for material things. When Selina tries to explain that there are intangibles that are more important than things, Silla ridicules her. Selina confronts Silla about the plot to sell Deighton’s land. Silla laughs when Selina tells her that no one—not even Deighton—listened when she revealed Silla’s scheme.

A year passes. The Boyce house is so tense that Selina spends her days in the library or with Beryl, for whom she has complicated feelings of longing. One afternoon, Selina discovers an official-looking envelope from Barbados in the Boyce mailbox. Silla tells Deighton that his sister has sold his land for $900; she did so because Silla pretended to be Deighton in a series of letters that culminated in a request to sell the land. The envelope from the mailbox contains a bank draft payable to Deighton. Deighton meekly agrees to cash the draft that following Monday.

On Monday, Deighton is dressed in his finest and seemingly very happy. Deighton is affectionate with his wife, a rarity in the Boyce house. Overcome by this unusual display of charm, Silla agrees to let Deighton cash the draft on his own at the bank. It is evening when he returns and announces that he has spent every penny of the money from the land sale on gifts for his family and a fancy trumpet for himself. Silla collapses, and Selina loyally stays behind when Ina and Deighton leave the room. In spite of herself, Selina is sad. “[T]here was a part of her that always wanted the mother to win, that loved her dark strength and the tenacious lift of her body” (118), she discovers.

Months later, Selina, Ina, and Silla go to the Steed wedding dressed in clothes from Deighton’s shopping spree. The women leave for the wedding alone because Deighton, now the subject of gossip because of the scandal over the money, is not sure he will attend.

At the church, the guests wait almost an hour before the bride arrives. Selina grows more and more uncomfortable as she listens to their friends and neighbors commiserate with Silla over Deighton’s overindulgent splurge. Silla sits quietly until an older man she knew from Barbados asks her to dance with him. When Beryl shows up, Selina convinces her to dance to the calypso music with her, and Selina begins to feel a little joy.

Her happy feelings last until Deighton arrives later that evening. The entire community closes ranks around Silla and the Boyce sisters by turning their backs on Deighton and singing the lyrics to a song that says, “Small Island, go back where you really come from!” (134). Deighton staggers away.

After Deighton’s public humiliation, things at home become even worse. Selina turns 15, and her friends at school celebrate with cupcakes at the lunch table on her birthday. Selina is both saddened and envious when one of the girls at the table tells everyone about how she had sex with her boyfriend after he told her that they were engaged.

That evening, Selina learns that her father has been injured in an accident at the mattress factory where he works. A machine mangled his arm. Silla refuses to let Selina go to her father in the hospital. She says Deighton does not want his daughters to see him in his diminished state. Selina has a breakdown and is unable to stop screaming.

Months later, Deighton returns home. He has a breezy manner, but he seems withdrawn and strangely content. He tells Selina that his arm will never heal well enough for him to play the trumpet or work in a factory again. Deighton spends all day reading religious pamphlets from a cult led by a charismatic leader named Father Peace, who claims to be God on Earth. On Sundays, Deighton goes to Father Peace’s worship services all day.

Selina accidentally breaks the glass on a picture of Father Peace one day and cuts her hand. Deighton believes Father Peace has supernatural powers that enable him to harm or kill his enemies, so he claims the cut is retribution for his daughter’s actions. His anger frightens Selina. Desperate to reconnect with her father, Selina pleads with him to take her to one of the Sunday services.

Selina attends one of Father Peace’s services with her father. People crowd into a Harlem brownstone to see Father Peace, a small old man whom they all worship and adore. Father Peace selects Deighton to sit by him, which is a great honor among the worshipers. Father Peace gives a sermon on how people should abandon all commitments—even those between family members—and worship him. Selina asks Deighton to take her home, but he initially ignores her, and the other worshipers prevent her from joining her father. When they do leave, Deighton seems weak and confused.

One Sunday over breakfast, Deighton tells his daughters that they must stop calling him their father since the only acceptable relationships are those between members of Father Peace’s group. Silla is at first puzzled by his pronouncement. She asks him what happened to make him believe this; inside, she is both horrified and fearful that she is to blame. Neither of her daughters do anything to relieve her of her fear, so her fear turns to anger.

Silla furiously tells Deighton that all the other West Indians she knows are getting ahead. The Boyces are not, however, because of Deighton. Silla then lists all the ways Deighton has wronged her, most painfully through the death of their son. Deighton responds meekly to her accusations until this last one. He tells her that Father Peace has offered him room and board for running the group’s restaurant. Deighton announces that it would be better for everyone if he takes the offer and lets God provide for the Boyce family. He leaves.

Selina visits her father weekly. Back home, Silla grows desperate and begins to work more hours to cover the family’s expenses. Things continue in this way until 1945, when Silla informs Customs and Immigration that Deighton is in the country illegally. Selina is at the restaurant when the immigration officials, accompanied by Silla, arrest Deighton.

That night, Selina accuses her mother of being Hitler and beats her up. Silla does nothing to defend herself. She “possessively” (159) gathers her daughter up with a “strange awe and respect” (159) afterwards. Silla has proved herself to be her mother’s daughter after all. On the day World War II ends, the family receives a cable from immigration informing them that Deighton drowned on the voyage back to Barbados. He likely killed himself.