The Exene Chronicles

Chapter 3

Coronado, adrift in the midst of San Diego Bay, that lone puzzle piece tucked beneath the sofa cushion that becomes a small puzzle unto itself.

Lia was the only dollop of chocolate in a row of blondes and a token brunette on the beach, the afternoon sun hanging low above the lazy, slow-moving waves. She squirmed in her bikini when Megan Hamilton declared, “I’m practically n****r on my belly from laying out all day.” Terror ripped through Lia’s small frame, preempting anger, quivering from her small feet and shooting straight to her brain like a bullet. It was the fear of the social isolation she’d face if she stood up and stomped Megan in the face like she wanted. Instead, she slyly kicked a small mound of sand onto the corner of Megan’s towel.

The other girls yawned with insouciance, stretching their tawny limbs and wondering what to eat for lunch. Taking a deep breath, Lia tried to calm herself. They were her friends; they liked her. Yet she was expected to consume the racist epithets that glided off Megan’s sassy tongue in the same way that the waves felt themselves powerless to keep from tumbling toward the shore. Alternately, she could simply choose not to have any friends at all. What did it matter? Before long she’d find herself lying on her towel all alone while the others frolicked in the ocean because getting her permed hair wet was a whole other thing.

She had a love-hate relationship with Different Strokes. She took comfort in the sight of other black faces like hers, plus the older boy Willis was pretty cute. But she detested the fawning, eager condescension of Mr. Drummond and his perky daughter Kimberly, and most of all, she hated the way the little boy Arnold—whose part was played by an actor who in real life was older than she was—bugged his eyes out, pursed his lips, and said, “Whatcha talkin’ bout Willis?” on every single episode. She did not know Stepin Fetchit, and she was only vaguely familiar with Amos ‘n’ Andy—she only knew she hated when the little boy started in with his entertaining little darky routine.

Things got better when Janet Jackson came on the show to play the girlfriend of the handsome boy Willis, because at least she was pretty and wore her hair cute and wasn’t being abused or crying all the time like when she played Penny on Good Times.