"When Jean and her fiancé arrived at the Jamesons', the Juneteenth goings on were already in full swing. The back yard brimmed with raucous laughter and talk of high-school sporting successes and the tribulations of the Dallas Cowboys. Old-school R. & B. groaned from speakers in a propped-open window, Bill Withers's lament about the absence of sun at odds with the big Texas sky and the garish heat."
"She escaped unnoticed into the house and sat on the couch, counting the minutes until they could get out of there. The Jamesons' home-at least this front room, where Jean sat-hadn't changed for as long as she could remember: the upright piano in the corner; the rows of mammy figurines on the built-in shelves instead of books; the framed portrait of Jesus above the mantel. Bougie home"
Jean and her fiancé Wole arrive at the Jamesons' Juneteenth gathering to a backyard full of laughter, sports talk, and old-school R. & B. music. Miss Sammie greets them exuberantly while Jean's mother watches in a kente-print muumuu. Pops Jamal interrogates Wole about his medical ambitions, testing his composure before the assembled family. Wole replies politely, suppressing New York City sarcasm, while others watch the exchange. Jean retreats into the unchanged front room to bide time, noticing the upright piano, mammy figurines on built-in shelves, and a framed portrait of Jesus above the mantel, all signaling a particular, familiar household atmosphere.
Read at The New Yorker
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