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| Hannah signs her books at Barnes & Noble in Warwick, RI. |
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“The Black Doll”
"The Moment" RWW Writing Technique
Anonymous
I am speeding through my town’s annual yard sale when I spot the table marked “Odds & Ends.” Glancing at the pile of rejected goods I notice a Black doll dressed in a pink chiffon party dress. While I pick up the doll and stare into its rubbery chocolate brown face I am suddenly transported back to my eighth birthday party.I am sitting at the head of our dining room table in the rose bouquet wallpapered room of my youth. Most of my relatives are there – it must be a Saturday, I ponder. There’s my Grandma and Nonni sitting on my right; my Uncles Tom and Phil and their respective wives, Aunt Mary and Aunt Ellie, next to them. My two brothers, Phil and Jim and my baby sister Joann are sitting to my left – Joann in her highchair sucking her right thumb, as usual. My cousins Tommy and Joey are fighting in the back corner of the room – they never stop, not even for a party. My dad is filming the whole event with his new movie camera while my mother is walking through the doorway with a birthday cake covered in yellow frosting and displaying eight lit candles. Everyone is wearing blue and white striped conical paper party hats with elastic bands wrapped under their chins. I’m hoping that there’s chocolate cake under that icing – it’s my favorite.After I blow out my candles and the chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream is eaten, I am finally given the signal I’ve been waiting for all afternoon. “Why don’t you open your presents, Mary Pat?” my Dad announces.I start to rip open the boxes. A new hand knit sweater from my grandma. A pretty pink dress from my aunts, toys from my uncles and cousins and a new powder blue Schwin bicycle from my Dad. I finally get to the last present – it’s from my mother. I rip away the paper and stare at the cellophane encased box. It’s a black doll! Is this a joke? I’m not black. What was she thinking? I don’t know what to say. I look around the room in embarrassment. Does anyone else think this is strange, I wonder?No, I decide for myself, who needs their opinion. This is strange. This is weird. This is wrong. You don’t give a girl a doll that looks nothing like herself. Plus, my mother should know I don’t like dolls. I’m not a girly girl – I’m a tomboy who always plays sports with the boys in the neighborhood rather than play house with the little prissy neighborhood girls. I was really hoping for a Mickey Mantle baseball glove. But no, I find this brown face staring back at me with black wiry hair.What was she thinking, I repeat, over and over in my head? Did she view me as her black daughter? Did she really not love me? Am I that foreign to her? Did she really not know me, Mary, her daughter?I lay the black baby doll down on the “Odds and Ends” table and plod back to my car. I start the car’s engine and turn on the heater to high. I feel cold, alone and unloved.<< Previous Page |
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Paperback
Size : 6 x 9
Pages: 118
ISBN: 0-595-31265-9
Published: Mar-2004 |
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"Hannah Goodman has written a wonderfully witty, engrossing and hilarious novel about sisters and their relationships. Her prose is dead on and her scenes flow effortlessly from one to the other. I can't remember the last time I stayed up to finish a book, but I had to finish My Sister’s Wedding!"
Rosemary O’Brien, Author of First Saturday
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In the 2005 fall issue of East Bay Living, syndicated columnist cited several famous authors like Grisham and Patricia Cornwell as her favorite authors. She also added, "I also like local authors. There's a young adult book (My Sister's Wedding) by Hannah Goodman, a teacher who lives in Bristol (RI). It has great dialogue."
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Paperback
Size : 6 x 9
Pages: 144
ISBN: 0-595-39430-2
Published: May-2004 6 |
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