Summary

Cassius Clay Clouds – It is 1968. 11-year-old Delphine, along with her younger sisters Vonetta and Fern, are headed to Oakland, California, from Brooklyn, New York, to see their mother, Cecile, for the first time in years. Fern carries a doll with her named Miss Patty Cake. The flight is bumpy, as if the clouds are Cassius Clay throwing punches. Delphine reflects on how her father, Pa, calls Cassius Clay “Mohammad Ali”, while Pa’s mother, Big Ma, still calls him “Cassius Clay”. Delphine alternates between the two. The girls are excited to be traveling to California, and consider it a vacation. Cecile had left Pa and her three girls when Delphine was almost five, Vonetta couldn’t walk, and Fern was a newborn. Big Ma, though deeply Christian, cannot forgive Cecile for leaving while Pa was sick. Big Ma, a native of Alabama, moved...