One Crazy Summer Chapter 6 Summary

Collect Call

  • The girls leave Ming's and crowd into the now empty phone booth.
  • Delphine talks to an operator and says she wants to place a collect call to her father, Louis Gaither. (She calls by name, not by number. Ah, the salad days).
  • Big Ma picks up and immediately scolds Delphine for calling collect—that's when the person you're calling gets charged instead of you—and for being out by themselves without Cecile.
  • Well, so much for comfort. But at least they called to check in, like they promised they would.
  • Delphine cuts to being back at Cecile's, a tablecloth on the floor and Cecile doling out Lo Mein.
  • Delphine is especially surprised when she sees Cecile break out some chopsticks and start eating with them. Successfully. She's never seen anything like it before.
  • Dinner passes without conversation. Crickets…
  • As Cecile cleans up, she's once again careful to tell the girls to stay out of the kitchen. (What is in the freaking kitchen?)
  • Bang. A loud, foreboding knock comes at the door.
  • Delphine doesn't see much before they're sent back to their room—just some people in dark clothes and Afros. Hmm… could that be the Black Panthers?