One Crazy Summer Chapter 25 Summary

Wish We Had a Camera

  • They get off the bus in San Francisco and are met by a crowd of hippies hanging around the station.
  • The girls don't see many hippies back home in Brooklyn, so they stare big time.
  • Delphine even wishes she could take a picture.
  • One of the hippies flashes the peace sign, and Delphine instinctively answers with a Black Panther slogan: "Power to the people."
  • Vonetta and Fern announce their support of the cause in turn.
  • Then a flower girl—a real flower girl—dances by and gives them some daisies.
  • They exchange peace signs and power signs, and the girls are on their way.
  • First stop, China town. After some dumplings, tea and ten fortune cookies, they move on to window-shopping.
  • Delphine gets distracted by a family of tall, blond, white people standing and staring at her and her sisters. These white people speak a different language.
  • Delphine checks her schedule (of course she has a schedule) and moves them along to the cable car. They have to get on now or they'll miss it.
  • They ride the car all the way to Fisherman's Wharf, wishing they had a camera the whole way.
  • Delphine almost gets lost in smelling the sea air and hearing the gulls and staring at the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, but then she remembers that she has to take care of her sisters, so she snaps back into reality.
  • She leads them to a gift shop, where the clerk starts eyeing them like he expects them to steal something.
  • Delphine exercises her rights as a citizen, the ones she learned at the center, holding her head high to the clerk and leading her sisters right out the door without spending a cent.
  • They buy some postcards as souvenirs elsewhere, and hop back on the bus to Oakland.
  • As much fun as the day was, Delphine feels pretty good about heading back to a familiar place, where no one stares at you like you're a museum exhibit.
  • They get some food from Ming's and head back to the green stucco house. They can't wait to tell Cecile all about their day.
  • When they stroll up, though, there are three police cars outside—and Cecile is handcuffed.
  • She's being arrested along with two other Black Panthers.