Recitatif

Recitatif Summary | Detailed Summary

The narrator of Recitatif is a woman named Twyla who recalls her stay at an orphanage when she was eight years old. The story traces Twyla's encounters with her roommate, Roberta, at St. Bonaventure orphanage over the course of twenty years. In the story's opening, the narrator explains that she has been placed in the orphanage because her mother dances all night. Roberta has been placed there because her mother is sick. Twyla says that St. Bonny's was not so bad. Other shelters, like Bellevue for instance, house hundreds of children in one large room. St. Bonny's housed four children to a room. At the time that Twyla and Roberta stay there, there is a shortage of state kids so they are the only two in their room. For the four months that the two girls stay at St. Bonny's they switch beds nightly. They never claim a permanent bed as their own.

The day that Twyla arrives at St. Bonny's, a woman, whom the girls call Big Bozo, introduces them to each other and gets them settled into their room. Twyla doesn't want to room with Roberta at first because she is white. Twyla comments that once and awhile her mother stops dancing for long enough to tell her something important. When Twyla meets Roberta, she remembers her mother telling her that white people never wash their hair and smell funny. Twyla says Roberta smells funny. When Big Bozo introduces the two girls, Twyla says that her mother won't like that she is putting her there. Big Bozo says that is a good thing because than perhaps Twyla's mother will come get her out soon. Roberta misinterprets this statement. She thinks that Twyla means that her mother will be angry that her daughter is in a shelter. Roberta asks Twyla if her mother is sick too. Twyla says no, she just likes to dance all night. Roberta nods her head, understanding. Twyla likes that Roberta catches on quickly. The other kids at the shelter call Twyla and Roberta "salt and pepper" because Twyla is black and Roberta is white.

Both of the girls are eight years old. They both are failing school. Roberta is failing because she can't read and doesn't even listen to what the teacher says. Twyla is failing because she can't remember what she reads or what the teacher says. Twyla says that Roberta is not good at anything except playing jacks. Although Roberta and Twyla don't like each other at first they stick together because no one else wants to play with them, since they are not real orphans.

The narrator says that the other kids have "beautiful dead parents in the sky," whereas Roberta and Twyla are dumped at the shelter. The New York state shelter is filled with children from all cultures and backgrounds. Twyla is grateful that at least they get proper meals; her mother's idea of dinner is popcorn and Yoo-Hoo. Roberta doesn't like the food and lets Twyla finish whatever she doesn't want. The only bad thing about the shelter is that the older girls from the second floor push Twyla and Roberta around once in a while. Some of the big girls are as old as sixteen. They are mostly scared runaways or teens that have been thrown out of their houses. The staff tries to keep them separated from the younger children. Roberta and Twyla watch the girls dance to their radios in the orchard. When the older girls catch the younger girls watching them they pull their hair and twist their arms. Roberta and Twyla are both scared of the older girls but they don't want each other to know this. They make a list of dirty names to call back to the girls in the orchard as they run away from them.

The orchard is filled with hundreds of apple trees. The trees are bare on the day that Twyla arrives at the shelter. By the time she leaves the shelter, the trees are covered white flowers. Twyla dreams of the orchard often but she doesn't know why because nothing much ever happens there.

One time Maggie, one of the kitchen women, falls down in the orchard. The older girls laugh at her. Twyla and Roberta don't try to help or call for help. Maggie is an older woman. She is dumb and deaf. She has crooked legs that cause her to rock and sway as she walks. She works the early morning shift until two o'clock, or two-fifteen if she is late starting work. When she finishes work at two-fifteen she cuts through the orchard to catch her bus but usually misses it and has to wait another hour for the next one. She wears a hat with earflaps on it as a child would wear.

Twyla wonders if Maggie can cry or yell if someone attacks her. Roberta says that Maggie can cry but she would make no sound. She also says that Maggie would not be able to scream. Twyla yells at Maggie, calling her "dummy" and "bowlegs" to see if the woman can hear her. Maggie doesn't turn around. Twyla imagines that Maggie can hear her but she doesn't let on that she can. Afterward Twyla feels ashamed because she realizes that if Maggie did hear her she can't tell on her to anyone.

As time passes, Twyla and Roberta begin to get along. The day before Maggie falls in the orchard the girls find out that their mothers are coming to visit them on Sunday. They have both been in the shelter for twenty-eight days. Their mothers will arrive at ten in the morning. They will go to chapel together and then have lunch with them in the teacher's lounge. Twyla thinks it will be good for both of their mothers to meet each other. On Sunday, after breakfast, the girls watch the road from the window. The girls curl each other's hair. Roberta's socks are still wet. She washes them the night before and leaves them hanging on the radiator. Twyla thinks her socks are pretty. They have pink scalloped tops. Both girls have a purple Easter basket they made out of construction paper in craft class. The baskets are filled with jellybeans. Bozo enters the room. She tells the girls they look nice and says it's time to come downstairs. When Twyla gets up, she drops the jellybeans from her basket on the floor. She races to put them back and Bozo escorts the girls to the first floor. The other girls downstairs are lined up for chapel. Adult visitors stand on one side of the room. Some of these visitors are potential adopters, all of whom are frightening. A few of the girls have their grandmothers visiting. None of the children has young visitors. If they had young relatives, they wouldn't be "real orphans."

Mary, Twyla's mother, is wearing the green slacks that Twyla hates because they make her butt stick out. She also wears a ratty fur jacket with ripped pocket linings. Twyla is embarrassed because her mother doesn't know they are going to chapel and is dressed inappropriately. Mary waves eagerly, as though she is the child, not the mother. Twyla walks toward her slowly, carrying the basket and hoping it will not break. Mary squeezes Twyla and squashes the basket and candy inside. She says, "Twyla Baby." Twyla knows that the older girls are sure to make fun of her for this. Twyla is so embarrassed she says she could have killed her. As her mother continues to hug her Twyla's anger ceases. She thinks a pretty mom on earth is better then a beautiful dead one in the sky, even if Mary does leave her alone to go dancing.

Roberta taps Twyla on the shoulder and introduces her mother, then introduces her mother to Mary. Roberta's mother is a large, towering woman who is wearing a huge cross and is carrying an enormous Bible. Mary smiles as she tries to shake Roberta's mother's hand. Roberta's mother looks down at Twyla and Mary and quickly leads her daughter to the back of the chapel line. Mary realizes what just happened and says, "That bitch."

In chapel, everyone stares at Mary after she swears. She fidgets during the service and groans in boredom. She refuses to read along with the sermon or sign the hymns. Twyla reiterates that she could have killed her. The ordeal brings a smug look back to the "real orphans'" faces. Mary also forgot to bring a lunch so she and Twyla eat the smashed jellybeans. Roberta's mother packed a large lunch and she reads the Bible to her daughter as they eat. Like always, Roberta doesn't eat much. Twyla says that the wrong food is always matched with the wrong people. She believes this is what got her into waitressing work later on, to match the right food with the right people.

After the mothers leave, Roberta shares the graham crackers her mother brought with Twyla.

Roberta leaves St. Bonny's in May when the apple trees had begun to bloom with flowers. On the last day the girls go out to the orchard to watch the older girls smoke. Twyla is worried about Big Bozo's plans to move another girl into her room. Roberta promises to write to Twyla everyday, which Twyla thinks is a sweet gesture since Roberta can't read or write. Twyla wants to mail drawings to Roberta but doesn't get her address. When Twyla thinks of Roberta in later years, she can only remember the wet socks with pink scalloped edges.

Years later Twyla works behind the counter at a Howard Johnson's. She doesn't mind the job but it's a long ride from where she lives in Newburgh. She works the second night shift, from eleven at night to seven in the morning. It is pretty dead until the greyhound stops in for breakfast at six-thirty. The place looks better at night. Twyla prefers it when the sun shines in, even though it reveal how run down the place is. One morning Twyla spots Roberta at a booth in her the Howard Johnson restaurant. She is sitting with two boys that have long hair and scruffy facial hair. Roberta's hair is so big that Twyla can barely see her face but she recognizes her eye right away. Roberta is wearing a powder blue halter and shorts. She has huge earrings and more makeup than the older girls in the orchard at St. Bonny's did.

Twyla is stuck at the counter until seven but she watches the booth to make sure that Roberta doesn't leave before her shift is over. When Twyla's replacement shows up, she walks over to Roberta's booth and says hello. She wonders if Roberta will recognize her or if she has tried to block St. Bonny's out of her mind. Roberta does remember Twyla. She asks if Twyla works there. Twyla says yes and explains that she lives nearby in Newburgh. Roberta laughs and the boys that she sits with laugh along with her. Twyla feels uncomfortable so she laughs too. Roberta lights a cigarette and says that they are on their way to the coast. One of the boys that she is with has an appointment with Hendrix. Roberta makes fun of Twyla for not knowing who Jimi Hendrix is. Twyla feels dismissed. She asks Roberta how her mother is doing. Roberta grins and says she's fine. She asks Twyla how her mother is doing. Twyla says she is as pretty as a picture and then she turns away form the booth.

Several more years pass after this encounter. Twyla is married to a fireman named James. She likes his big loud family and feels comfortable with them as well as with him. His family has lived in Newburgh all their lives. They remember it for the flourishing town it used to be. Years later, the wealthy families have moved away to Annandale, a wealthy neighborhood nearby. Squatters and high-risk renters have ruined the once magnificent houses in the old neighborhood. Half of the town's population is on welfare. Twyla and James have a son named Joseph. One day in late June, Twyla drives out to the new mall at the edge of town to shop at a gourmet grocery store. As she shops, she feels guilty about making such extravagant purchases. Someone calls out her name while she is in the checkout line. Twyla doesn't recognize the stranger at first then she realizes that it is Roberta. Roberta asks her to meet her outside after they are finished paying for their groceries. Outside Roberta tells Twyla that she lives nearby in Annandale.

In contrast to last time Twyla saw her, Roberta is nicely dressed and has smooth, sleek hair. Twyla asks how she ended up in Annandale. Roberta says she has been there a year. Her husband lives there. He is a widower with four kids who works in computers. Twyla tells her that she has a son. Roberta asks Twyla to have coffee and Twyla accepts. Twyla notices that Roberta has a driver and a dark blue limo. She has two servants also. Twyla jokes with her by saying, if only Big Bozo could see you now. Twelve years ago, they were strangers in the coffee shop. Now they both giggle and all of a sudden, their four months together twenty years ago comes rushing back. Although they spent a short time together, it meant something that they were both there together. They were two girls who knew no one else in the world. They sit down at a booth. Twyla asks Roberta if she ever learned to read. Roberta reads her the menu to show that she did. They recall the Easter baskets and how they tried to introduce their mothers and both laugh. Twyla asks what happened with Hendrix. She says she thought of her when he died. Roberta jokes with Twyla saying that she finally learned who Hendrix was.

Roberta asks if Twyla remembers the day the older girls pushed Maggie down in the orchard. Twyla doesn't remember. She remembers Maggie falling, not having been pushed. Roberta mentions when Big Bozo was fired. Twyla doesn't remember this either. Roberta explains that Twyla wasn't there when it happened. Roberta had been sent back to St. Bonny's. She stayed a year when she was ten and another two months when she was fourteen then she ran away. Twyla is shocked that she ran away. Roberta says she couldn't be like the other big girls in the orchard. Twyla asks if she is sure about Maggie. Roberta says Twyla must have blocked it out.

Twyla wants to go home. Roberta can't just pretend that everything is better. She doesn't even apologize for snubbing her at the Howard Johnson's. Twyla asks if Roberta was on drugs that day. Roberta says maybe a little bit, although she didn't do drugs much. Twyla says she acted as if she didn't want to know her. Roberta responds by saying they both know how things were those days. People had racist attitudes and they would think badly of them if they saw them together. Twyla's experience was the opposite. She saw black and white people come into Howard Johnson's together all the time. During that time musicians, protesters and and friends of different races all traveled together. The two women walk to Roberta's car. Roberta's driver helps Twyla put her groceries in her station wagon. Roberta tells Twyla to keep in touch but Twyla knows she will not call Roberta. Once Roberta is in her limo, she calls out the window, asking Twyla if her mother ever stopped dancing. Twyla says no. She asks Roberta if her mother ever got well. Roberta says no, she didn't.

What the papers call racial strife affects Newburgh and its surrounding communities in autumn. Twyla's son Joseph is on a list of children who will be forced to change schools. He will take the bus to a far away junior high school this year. Twyla thinks it is a good thing until she hears differently. To her all schools are dumpy; there is no difference between any of them in her eyes. While driving past one of the schools one afternoon, Twyla sees women marching outside. Roberta is among them. She is holding a sign that says, "Mothers have rights too." Twyla slows her car down. Roberta sees her and waves. Twyla doesn't wave back but Roberta approaches the car anyway. Roberta is picketing the fact that her kids are being sent to another school, she explains to Twyla. Twyla says that Joseph is being moved too. However, she says it shouldn't matter. They argue over whether the children should be forced to change schools.

As the fighting increases, Roberta reminds Twyla that she used to curl her hair, acknowledging their history. Twyla says she hated Roberta's hands in her hair. The women who were in the picket line surround Twyla's car and begin to rock it back and forth. Like the old days in the orchard, Twyla reaches for Roberta's hand by instinct. Roberta just stands there and looks at Twyla. A police officer strolls over and tells the women to get back on the line or off the street. They leave but Roberta stands there motionless. Roberta says that Twyla hasn't changed. She accuses her of having been the one to push down Maggie and kick her. She calls Twyla a bigot because she says that Maggie was a helpless old black woman. Twyla says Maggie wasn't black and she never pushed or kicked her. Roberta says they both did. Twyla calls her a liar. Roberta turns away and Twyla drives off.

The next morning Twyla goes into her garbage and makes a sign in response that says children have rights too. She was going to tack it up near the picket line but when she arrives, there is another group of women, protesting the picketers. She marches with this second group. Twyla returns to the picket line for six weeks. When Roberta doesn't acknowledge that she is there Twyla make meaner signs, statements in response to Roberta's "Mothers have rights too," include "How would you know?" The last sign that Twyla makes says, "Is your mother well?" When Roberta sees this, she goes home and doesn't return. Twyla stops going too. Her signs don't have anything to do with the cause anymore. Due to the picketing classes are suspended until October. When the children return to school, there are a few fights at the beginning but everything quickly returns to normal, as if nothing had happened.

When Joseph graduates from high school Twyla can't help but look for Roberta, but she doesn't see her. Twyla is still bothered by what Roberta said about Maggie. She is bothered because they both know the truth; that they watched and didn't help her. Twyla did want to hurt Maggie. Maggie represented her dancing mother. She was nobody; like Twyla's mother, she could never tell anyone anything important. When the girls pushed Maggie down, Twyla knew she wouldn't scream; neither could Twyla. Twyla decides not to buy a tree at Christmas because she is trying to save money and her mother in law is having Christmas at her place. At the last minute, she changes her mind. She finds a tree, puts it in her car and drives slowly down the street. The streets are empty except for a group of formally dressed partygoers that are walking out of the Newburgh Hotel. Twyla decides to stop at a diner nearby to rest before she has to rush through all of her Christmas preparations.

In the diner, someone calls her name. It is Roberta. She is dressed in a silver gown and fur coat. There is a man and a woman with her. They all look a little drunk. Roberta asks Twyla how she is doing. Twyla says she is fine, just busy because of Christmas. Roberta tells the others to wait for her in the car and she sits down at Twyla's booth. She says she has to tell her something. Twyla tells her not to, she says it doesn't matter anymore. Roberta says it's about Maggie. She explains that she really did remember Maggie being black but now she is not sure. She says that because Maggie couldn't talk she thought she was crazy. She had been brought up in an institution, like the one Roberta's mother had been in, like the one Roberta always assumed she would be put in herself. She says that Twyla was right; they didn't hurt Maggie but Roberta wanted to. Twyla says they were only kids and that they were lonely and scared. Roberta says she knows and tells her that is all she wanted to say. Twyla says thank you. Twyla asks Roberta if she told her that her mom never stopped dancing. Roberta says yes and and hers never got well. Roberta cries. She looks at Twyla and asks her "what the hell happened to Maggie?"