Monday's Not Coming

After the Jacob fiasco, Monday still craved the high from her former braiding popularity. She decided to dye her hair blond. When Claudia remarked that her own mother would kill her if she dyed her hair, Monday’s eyes went blank and she dissociated for a moment. Claudia helped Monday pick out the right color and loaned her some money for the box dye. 

It took eight hours to complete the dye job. When Monday finally arrived at school, she was subdued, with lifeless eyes and a ring of sweat around the collar of her shirt. When she took off her hat, her hair was awful: burnt orange, fried, stiff, with split ends everywhere. 

Claudia tried to reassure Monday that it wasn’t not so bad and said Ma would help fix it. When they walked into their classroom, everyone stared before laughing and cruelly teasing. Monday rushed out, and Claudia followed. Monday locked herself in a bathroom stall, but Claudia crawled under to get to her. 

Monday had dyed her hair because Jacob said he would want her if she looked like Beyoncé. Monday sobbed, saying everything would be better if she and Jacob got together. “I couldn’t believe it. They broke her. Plucked her out of our bubble and crushed the life out of her. Her body bent before she leaned over, head falling into my lap, sobbing softly” (211). As Claudia comforted Monday, a bright light flashed at them. It looked like a camera flash, but they didn’t see anyone in the bathroom.

After a few days, Ma took Monday to a salon to fix her hair. The girls went back to normal for the rest of the weekend.

Daddy took Claudia to Uncle Robby’s house to watch his band practice. They had a big gig that Claudia wanted to attend, but Ma wouldn’t let her go, saying it was too dangerous. Claudia wanted to hold up a sign saying her name, so they could shout out to her like on the mix tapes.

As they left, Daddy asked if her friends would like the new tune. She told him kids didn’t listen to the old stuff anymore, making her father flinch. He reminded her that go-go was her culture and her roots. “Kids tend to forget they roots but roots always the first to carry you back home” (215).

Daddy wondered aloud who gave her the bruise on her forehead, but Claudia insisted it happened by accident. (Neither Daddy nor Ma believed this story.) 

After the performance, Daddy and Claudia took the long way home. Daddy told her the story of her birth (19 hours of labor culminating in a C-section). He then told her, for the first time, about Ma’s pregnancy with her. Claudia kicked all the time, wanting desperately to be out. It was a difficult, painful pregnancy. Ma went into the hospital with bleeding more than once. Daddy said they were grateful when Claudia was finally born.

Claudia wondered if it was her fault Ma couldn’t have more babies. Daddy admitted Ma didn’t want him telling her the story of her difficult pregnancy, but he insisted Ma never regretted having Claudia. He told Claudia how beautiful she was when she was born, and how much others were drawn to her:

It’s like you came here with a purpose, a mission, to make others feel good. So even though your friend ain’t around, don’t seem right for you to stop living. You were made to light up this world, not to be cooped up in the house. (219) 

Claudia wondered what would happen if she failed to light up the world, and Daddy assured her he would be there to pick her up when she fell. He took her for some fried rice as a treat before dinner. They ran into April and Tuesday in the Chinese restaurant. When Claudia hugged Tuesday, she could feel her bones through her coat, and Tuesday smelled of urine. 

Daddy and Claudia asked about Monday, and April said she was back home and they had been playing. Tuesday said that Monday mostly played in the closet. April’s hands started shaking, and she said Tuesday was just kidding; Monday was still with her father. Claudia sharply said she thought Monday was at her aunt’s. April said she heard wrong, rushing to leave. “Tuesday stared up at me with Monday’s eyes—calm and indifferent, but needy” (222). Tuesday begged Claudia to come over and play soon before April swept her home again.

According to rumor, Washington, D.C., was built on a swamp and is slowly sinking. That’s why it’s so humid, and swarms of gnats and alligators crawl from the sewers to eat babies and stray animals. 

Ma insists that none to these rumors are true. She tells Claudia to find things out for herself.