Summary

Foreword

The setting is Boston. The author recalls disappearing—changing from a schoolgirl to a “body without a name.”

Chapter 1. Face

Birdie and her sister, Cole, share their own language called Elemeno, made up by Cole. It is 1975 in Boston, and the girls’ white mother and their black father can often be overheard fighting. Their mother spends many hours in the family’s basement participating in secret meetings that the girls are strictly forbidden to enter.

The girls are taken by their father and his friend Ronnie Parkman to visit their Aunt Dot, and to say goodbye to her. Dot is leaving the country to move to India. During the going-away party, Birdie enters one of the rooms in Dot’s house and sees some men huddled around something. One of the men, named Redbone, recognizes her and takes her to the center of the huddle...