Brownies

“Brownies” is the first story in ZZ Packer’s debut collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. The story is set at Camp Crescendo, a summer camp in the American South, in the 1980s. “Brownies” is narrated by “Snot,” a member of the black Brownie troop attending Camp Crescendo. The narrator’s real name is Laurel.

The story’s plot concerns whether a girl in another Brownie troop at Camp Crescendo, an all-white troop known as Troop 909, has called one of the girls in Snot’s group the n-word. Other girls in Snot’s Brownie troop vow to get revenge on Troop 909, with members of Snot’s group deciding they will ambush the Troop 909 girls in the camp restrooms that evening.

As Snot’s group disembarks their bus upon reaching Camp Crescendo, they view Troop 909 from afar. Arnetta, the unofficial leader of Snot’s group, says of Troop 909, “‘Man, did you smell them?...They smell like Chihuahuas. Wet Chihuahuas” (2). Octavia, another girl in Snot’s Brownie troop, who is also the daughter of Mrs. Hedy, the parent helper for the Troop, responds first with “Serious Chihuahuas,” and then “Caucasian Chihuahuas” (3).

Along with Mrs. Hedy, the Brownie troop is chaperoned by Mrs. Margolin, the troop leader. The other, vital members of Snot’s troop, in addition to Arnetta and Octavia, are Janice and Daphne. Two more minor characters, Drema and Elise, also make appearances in the story, though they rarely speak.

Janice is described as “country,” and Packer presents her as lacking intelligence and always willing to do the bidding of Arnetta and Octavia, who secretly make fun of her.

Daphne is the most like Snot of all of the members of the troop, and may be viewed as Snot’s doppelganger. Largely silent throughout the story—and said to be this way nearly all the time—Daphne wrote the prize-winning poem for Langston Hughes Day at the girl’s school.

Arnetta asks Daphne whether or not she heard a member of Troop 909, the Caucasian Brownie troop, call Daphne the n-word. Daphne first shrugs her shoulders, and then nods. Arnetta then decides that their Brownie troop must take revenge on the girls of Troop 909; the use of this racial slur is unacceptable. The rest of the group is silent after Arnetta voices her opinion, then looks toward Daphne, the supposed victim of the slur, for guidance about what to do. Daphne ignores the stares and pretends to be engrossed in her Girl Scout handbook. Finally, Janice breaks the silence and decides the troop will sneak into Troop 909’s cabin and “‘beat ‘em up till they’re as flat as frying pans!” (8).

Arnetta declares the troop will hold a secret meeting, in order to decide if and how to exact revenge on Troop 909. The troop spends the next day figuring out the proper place to ambush the girls of Troop 909. Unwittingly, Snot provides the location for the ambush, saying, “‘the only time they’ll be unsupervised is in the bathroom’” (11). Arnetta realizes that the bathroom will indeed be the perfect place to carry out the troop’s plan.

The troop hikes to the camp bathroom, to scope out the location. Snot describes the building as looking “almost the same as it had the night before, [but] it somehow seemed stranger now. We hadn’t noticed the wooden rafters coming together in great V’s. We were, it seemed, inside a whale, viewing the ribs of the roof of its mouth” (12).

Arnetta explains that she and Octavia will enter the bathroom when the Troop 909 girls are there and pretend to be nice to them, before they “‘tell them what happens when they call any of us a ni****’” (12). Janice insists that she’ll say something as well. Arnetta, in a flippant manner, says, “Sure” (13). Snot, playing devil’s advocate, asks Arnetta what happens if the girls of Troop 909 deny the accusation. Arnetta tells Snot, “‘Don’t think. Just fight.’” (13). Daphne begins cleaning the bathroom. Arnetta asks Daphne if she will accompany the group for the encounter with Troop 909. Daphne does not respond to Arnetta’s question, and it’s inferred by the group that she will not take part in the confrontation. Elise asks about the secret meeting, and Arnetta responds, “‘We just had it’” (14).

Evening arrives. Mrs. Hedy, Octavia’s mother, arrives to the cabin, concerned about her “imminent divorce from her husband” (14). Mrs. Hedy asks the troop to sing her Brownie songs to cheer her up. Mrs. Margolin arrives as they sing. Mrs. Margolin then asks the girls to sing “The Doughnut Song,” a song the troop collectively loathes. The girls plead with Mrs. Margolin not to have to sing it, but Mrs. Margolin demands they do. The girls are able to stop singing the song after the first verse. Mrs. Margolin departs, and Arnetta announces to the group that it’s time to go the bathroom, to “wash up” (17).

The girls make the trek to the restrooms. Upon reaching the building, they see lights on inside. Arnetta tells the group that she and Octavia will go first and then give a signal (by saying “we’re gonna teach you a lesson”) for the rest of the troop to rush in to the bathrooms (20). Janice follows the duo in. The rest of the group waits. Arnetta gives no signal. Snot hears one of the Troop 909 girls say, “‘NO. That did NOT happen!’” (20). Elise thinks they should go inside, while Drema is concerned about being hurt. Snot decides they’ll go in.

In the restrooms, Janice is using the toilet. Octavia tells Elise she thinks the girls comprising Troop 909 are “retarded,” to which Arnetta’s counterpart in Troop 909, referred to as the “big girl,” responds, saying the Troop 909 girls are developmentally-disabled (21). Arnetta says the Troop 909 girls are “pretending” (21). Octavia urges the group to leave, asking the Troop 909 girls not tell any adults that Arnetta, Octavia, and the rest of their group were in the bathroom. The big girl from Troop 909 taunts them, saying she knows the group will get in trouble. Arnetta responds by saying to the big girl that she’d be a tattletale if she told the adults. The big girl says, “I like tattletale” (22).

After the scene break, the Troop 909 leader is in the bathroom, along with a park ranger. The ranger leaves while the troop leader comforts the girls in 909, who are gathered around her and visibly upset. Mrs. Margolin arrives with Daphne. The troop leader for 909 explains that, “[o]ur girls are not retarded. They are delayed learners,” (22) and that “[m]any of them just have special needs” (23). Snot describes the girls in her own troop as being “entirely speechless,” with Arnetta looking “stoic, as though she were soon to be tortured but was determined not to appear weak” (23).

The troop leader goes on to explain that many of the members of Troop 909 are “‘echolalic…[t]hat means they will say whatever they hear, like an echo’” (23). Arnetta tries to pick out which girl said the racial slur, with the troop leader telling Arnetta that her choice is folly, as the girl cannot speak. Arnetta then points to a second girl, who responds by showing off her sash and saying, “‘I’m a Brownie!’” (24). The scene ends.

In the final scene of the story, Snot and the rest of the troop are on the bus home from Camp Crescendo. Snot says that on the previous day, “Mrs. Margolin and Mrs. Hedy guarded [the girls] so closely, almost no one talked for the entire day” (24).

Snot is sitting next to Daphne, who gives Snot the journal she won for her prize-winning poem. Nothing is written in the journal. Arnetta and Octavia make fun of the girl in 909 who showed off her sash. Snot tries to figure out what to write in the journal but can’t think of anything. The rest of the troop gossips about happenings at school.

Octavia asks the group why they had “to be stuck at a camp with retarded girls” (25). Arnetta, in response, says: “‘You know why…[m]y mama and I were in the mall in Buckhead, and this white lady just kept looking at us. I mean, like we were foreign or something. Like we were from China’” (25). Elise asks what the woman said to Arnetta and her mother. Arnetta says, “‘Nothing…[s]he didn’t say nothing” (25).

Snot begins to tell her own thematically-related story. Octavia tells Snot to be quiet, but Daphne urges her to go on, calling Snot not by her nickname but by her given name, Laurel. Snot then recounts the time she and her father were at the mall and encountered a group of Mennonites. Snot’s father tells Snot, “‘See those people? If you ask them to do something, they’ll do it. Anything you want” (26). Snot’s father asks the Mennonites to paint his porch, which they do. Arnetta asks Snot why her father asked the Mennonites to do this specific task. Snot tells the girls what her father told her, that “‘it was the only time he’d have a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free’” (26). Snot then compares the Mennonites labor to Daphne cleaning the bathroom, earlier in the story. Daphne asks Snot if her father thanked the Mennonites for their work. Snot says he did not. Arnetta laughs, then asks, “‘If I asked [the Mennonites] to take off their long skirts and bonnets and put on some jeans, would they do it?’” (28). The story concludes with Daphne’s response: “‘Maybe they would. Just to be nice” (28).

“Brownies” was originally published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1999, when Packer was twenty-six years old. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere was released in 2003.

Note: This guide quotes and obscures Packer's use of the n-word.