If You Come Softly

Ellie is home alone when her older sister, Anne, calls from San Francisco. Anne is having a commitment ceremony with her girlfriend Stacey, and she wants Ellie to fly out to California to attend. Ellie remembers how Marion “hit the roof” when Anne came out, and she begins wondering if one day she and Jeremiah might have a commitment ceremony (51). Ellie reveals to Anne that she met a boy, she describes his beautiful smile “bright brown eyes” and locks, and explains that he’s Black (55). Ellie instantly feels tension, and Anne shares that she’s surprised and only wants to protect Ellie from the pain and challenge of a relationship that is different. Ellie remembers how, a long time ago, Anne warned her not to rationalize love, since it was just “energy” and “ions connecting across synapses” (58), and Ellie agrees now that love doesn’t make any sense.

At basketball practice, Jeremiah observes the dynamics of the white and Black boys on Percy Academy’s team. While he has befriended by the two other Black boys on the team, Rayshon and Kennedy—”the three black musketeers”—Jeremiah still misses his old friends from Brooklyn Tech. He feels a tension with a white boy on the team, Peter, who “tried to sound black” and boasted about his father securing Rayshon a part-time job while Peter himself doesn’t work (62).