Brown Girl, Brownstones

As Selina overhears her parents arguing over the land in Barbados, she fantasizes about the safe, secure life of the white family that lived in the house before the Boyces. When summer comes, Selina visits one of the boarder’s rooms and even takes her first taste of rum with Miss Suggie. Selina convinces her mother to allow her to go to Prospect Park one summer day with Beryl. At Beryl’s house, Selina faces some uncomfortable questions from Beryl’s parents about the land in Barbados.

At the park with Beryl, Selina is intrigued by the sight of young couples making out. The girls find a perch and share bits of their lives with each other. Selina talks about feeling out of place in her family, while Beryl talks about her father beating her and the family’s expectation that she will become a lawyer. Beryl is shocked when Selina tells her that there are no such expectations from her family. Maybe, Beryl suggests, Selina can be a poet when she grows up.

Beryl explains to Selina that she is now getting her period and developing breasts—signs that she is becoming a woman. This angers Selina. Despite Silla’s accusations that Selina’s bold ways already make her a woman, Silla has not explained to Selina the physical transformation young women experience.