Counting and Skimming
- Try as she might, Delphine just can't get that marker off of Miss Patty Cake.
- Some time passes, kind of like in fast-forward. We learn that Fern eventually stops asking for her doll when they go to the People's Center, and Vonetta grows increasingly distant as she befriends the Ankton sisters.
- Janice, the middle sister, is her new BFF.
- We get back to real time, and Delphine brings us to free time at the Center.
- The other kids run around and play in the park, but Delphine just offers to help Sister Mukumbu with classroom chores—she feels weird not having anything to do.
- Delphine and Fern, who's still not totally comfortable by herself without her doll, start counting and stacking Black Panther newspapers.
- Delphine starts skimming the headlines, seeing Huey Newton's face over and over as she stacks.
- He's everywhere, she notices.
- And she remembers that Big Ma thinks he belongs in prison. But Delphine doesn't just adopt they same point of view as her grandma anymore—she thinks Huey looks cool and revolutionary.
- There's an article about Li'l Bobby in the paper, too, and Delphine gets so wrapped up in skimming the news that she loses track of her chore and ends up buying a paper to read instead.