THE BLACK GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jennifer Baszile

Author:Jennifer Baszile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2009-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

I DON’T THINK OF YOU AS BLACK

I CAUGHT MY FIRST glimpse of the gleaming white cruise ship as the airport shuttle bus pulled to the edge of the Miami Harbor. The Cunard Fair Winds was a confection of happiness, a gigantic cloud of pleasure, a dream. Even the ship’s name sounded exotic. I knew that the best seven days of the summer lay ahead of me. Until that moment, the summer of 1982 had been loaded with enrichment programs—math labs, marine biology, tennis clinic, swimming lessons. All of my friends had spent their summers at the beach. I knew this because I passed them each morning at the bus stop where they sat in folding chairs and spun their boogie boards like tops. But not me. I had a mother who had a vendetta against “idle time.” Whenever I asked to spend a day at the beach, Mom reminded me that I didn’t need to work on my tan.

The summer had been especially intense because Mom had quit her teaching job the previous spring and life at home had been strange ever since then. She played housewife for a while, waking up early, coming downstairs in her quilted robe with full makeup, and offering to make us a hot breakfast. When no one accepted her offer, Mom took up some new hobbies. She became a charity maven who organized silent auctions for a downtown hospital. When she wasn’t doing that, she met her friends for lunch, played tennis with other women, and shopped for tennis outfits. But she was even more involved in supervising my activities than before and made me tense by the middle of the summer.

I’d never taken a cruise before, but Natalie and I had been dreaming about taking one as long as we’d been watching The Love Boat. As we stepped onto the dock, music rang in my ears. “Love, exciting and new…” I wasn’t looking for love, just lots of fun. Every Saturday night, I planted myself in the corner of the couch to watch The Love Boat. I knew every chord change and every inflection in the theme song. Julie McCoy, Captain Stubing, Gopher, and Isaac the bartender weren’t just characters or crew members, they were my own personal ambassadors of fun and good times, my pals who had filled me with expectation. Mom didn’t watch the show, but she planned all of our vacations and must have thought a cruise sounded like a new adventure. I squinted in the ship’s glare and felt The Love Boat coming to life. My mind danced with images from the show—lazy poolside days, fruity drinks, and giddy frolicking; glitzy nights of elegant dinners and funky dancing. I couldn’t get aboard fast enough. If adults could discover passion and romance in an hour, imagine what I could do aboard the Fair Winds in seven days! I was hooked.

A roving photographer snapped photos beside the ship, and we assumed our poses and smiled. I cheesed, angling my body toward Natalie while Dad rested his forearm on my shoulder.

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