Summary

In "J'ouvert, 1996," the first person narrator, Ty, and his younger bird-mask-wearing brother Omari, spend the day away from home. At the story's start, Ty asks his mother for money to go to the barbershop and get a fade like his father used to have in preparation for the West Indian Day Parade. Tired of his whining, his mother cuts his hair instead. Ty insists he does not want a high-top, because everyone from school, including a boy named Trip, goes to the barbershop. While his mother cuts his hair, her boyfriend Mike comes over. He offers several unwanted interjections. Ty is ashamed and upset by his mother's cut which has "no fade, no taper at all" (33). His mother then tells Ty to take Omari out so she can be alone with Mike. Mike gives Ty a quarter so he does not come home early...