Linden Hills

In Chapter 2, Naylor introduces us to Wayne Avenue, a street of apartments that sit above Linden Hills, home to those “who had fled from the crowded sections of Putney Wayne and the alleys of Brewster Place” (23). Specifically, we meet Willie K. Mason—or “White” because he “was so black that the kids said if he turned just a shade darker, there was nothing he could do but start going the other way” (24)—who lives in Wayne Avenue, and Lester “Baby Shit”—or “Shit”—who lives with his mother and sister on the Fifth Avenue of Linden Hills. Lester and Willie have been friends since the seventh grade, although their friendship was solidified when they learned both were aspiring poets, Willie in his head and Lester on paper: “Bloody noses had made them friends, but giving sound to the bruised places in their hearts made them brothers” (28).

Lester and Willie are both unemployed, and it’s the week before Christmas. Willie “had left school after the ninth grade” (28), while Lester graduated high school but chose not to go to college because “to write great poetry you had to be out among the people, not locked away behind a twenty-foot stone wall” (28). Neither has any money to buy their families Christmas presents, and they’re trying to decide what to do when they bump into their friends Norman and Ruth Anderson, who invite them up to their apartment for a drink. The Anderson home is bare but extremely neat, with “bare wood floors, dusted and polished, and with the three pieces of furniture that sat in three large rooms,” and only “three Styrofoam cups” to drink from” (33). Every few years, when Norman “got the pinks,” he would go “up and down Wayne Avenue, screaming and tearing at his face and hair with his fingernails, trying to scrape off the pinks,” which is why the Andersons can’t keep anything sharp inside their apartment, or anything that could be smashed and destroyed (34). Six years ago, Ruth—who had once lived on Fifth Crescent Drive until the breakdown of her first marriage and her second marriage to Norman—had almost left, but she decided to stay when, in the middle of one of his “pinks,” Norman helped Ruth when she was sick, and so “she was still there because of some aspirin and a glass of water” (37).

Ruth suggests that Lester and Willie try looking for work in Linden Hills, as “there’s lots of people like Mrs. Donnell looking for someone to do heavy cleaning and clearing up extra bedrooms for guests” (41). The two set off for Linden Hills, and Willie agrees to stay over at Lester’s house on Fifth Crescent Drive so they can get an early start the next day. The Tilson house “was the smallest house on a street of brick ranch houses with iron picket fences,” neat and decorated entirely in green (47). Over dinner, Mrs. Tilson complains about how Lester didn’t go to college; afterward, Lester complains to Willie about his family. This is too much for Willie, who says that “you [Lester] still live here, with all your hollering and screaming Uncle Tom at other folks, and I think you like living here” (58). Willie “grew up with five brothers and sisters in three rooms,” and his “mom got beat up every night after payday by a man who couldn’t bear the thought of bringing home a paycheck only large enough for three people and making it stretch over eight people, so he drank up half of it” (58).

As Lester and Willie are about to go to sleep, they hear “a long, thin wail” coming up over Linden Hills, a sound that makes them freeze (60).

This chapter opens with a different voice—and Naylor uses a different font to illustrate this—as we get the perspective of Nedeed’s wife, who is locked in the basement. It’s unclear how long she has been locked there, but it’s been so long that her young son has died: “The limp body was hugged to her chest while the pale, shriveled arms and legs dangled behind her back” (66). We learn that the “long, thin wail” that Willie and Lester heard the night before was the sound of Mrs. Nedeed grieving for her dead son (60).

Meanwhile, upstairs, Nedeed is drinking his “brandy and soda,” musing upon his wife’s absence in the house as “nothing had gone smoothly since his wife had been downstairs” (66). He can’t understand how he could have chosen his wife so badly, although “he was no fool; he knew she would never have looked at him if it weren’t for the feel of the name Mrs. Luther Nedeed as she slipped on that white satin and brocade” (69). Feeling some empathy for her plight downstairs—but not enough to free her—he gives her some water for the night.

Later that day, Lester and Willie head over to the wedding of Winston Alcott—a resident of Linden Hills—to earn some money. Winston Alcott heads to his wedding with Luther Nedeed and his best man, David. The mood in the car is “gloomy” (74). We learn about the conversation that Winston had with own father a few months prior, when his father brought up the “rumors hanging over his [Winston’s] head”—rumors of Winston’s homosexuality—and how such rumors could not only ruin his career as a corporate lawyer but also get him kicked out of Linden Hills (77). Only marriage might put an end to these rumors. David—Winston’s best man—is not only his best and oldest friend, but also the man who “gave him his center, but the world had given him [Winston] no words—and ultimately no way—with which to cherish that” (80). David has broken off his romantic relationship with Winston because Winston will not own up to their relationship and leave Linden Hills, and is pursuing a life in Linden Hills over David.

Willie and Lester watch the wedding reception from the kitchen while cleaning plates. Willie notices that something is amiss with the wedding guests, realizing that all these people lack “spontaneity” and that “he was actually watching them watch themselves have this type of affair” (83). Similarly, he notices tension between the groom and his best man during the best man’s speech—which sounds more like a goodbye than anything else—and that the groom—rather than being happy on his wedding day—is in fact “drowning” and “no one could see” (90). Finally, Luther Nedeed offers the newly married couple a mortgage to a home on Tupelo Drive, the most prestigious real estate in Linden Hills, something that everyone else wants.