Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Dina, a young black woman, is at freshman orientation at Yale. She refuses to do a trust fall into the arms of “four scrawny former high school geniuses” (117), and the counselor excuses her as a black woman who “shouldn’t have to fit into any white, patriarchal system” (118). When the counselor asks the new students to name which inanimate object they would like to be, Dina shocks everyone, including herself, when she says, “a revolver.” Dina usually behaves and follows the rules, but this answer lands her in the dean’s office, and Dina is assigned a year of therapy. Additionally, her roommate’s parents decide that they are uncomfortable with her, so Dina ends up with her own room. She also receives regular visits from counselors, but Dina starts being naked when they arrive, and they give up.

One day, a weeping white girl shows up at Dina’s door, begging Dina to let her in. Dina resists, but the girl begs. Finally, Dina opens the door. The girl’s name is Heidi, and she is in Dina’s Contemporary Poetry class. She tells Dina that she wants to be called Henrik. Dina asks if she wants sexual reassignment surgery, and Heidi doesn’t answer.