l5 . i;orctrryA.lirsor, HappyEndings.17

"Ilc'll be fine." she'd replied, not Lrndcrstanding,speaking inste lovin$ you and hating you for your lifb, for not asking about what the other lbar. "Don't wc have a traditiorl of bastardsl" you have no reason to imagine, soft-chinned innocence I love. L{c was finc, :r classicallyugly healthy litde boy with that shock white hair that marked so manv of us. But afterward. it was that bad with my Jesseputs heg hands be y neck, smiles and says, "You tell the funni- sistcr down with pleurisl, then cystitis,and no work, no having tHappy Endings,""l did not know what sort of rehx egair st hcr. "You sure you can't have childrcn?" she asks. sure 'I creature it was. lt was not a poem, a short story, or a prose poem. lt was not would like to seewhat your kids 'uvouldturn out to be like." quite a condensation,a commentary,a questionnaire,and it missedbeing a I stifltn, say,"I can't have children. I've hever wanted children." parable,a proverb,a paradox.lt was a mutation.Writing rt gave me a senseof "Still," she says,"ytspoken bcfore, all the things I just could tions fmeta{iction],and had alreadymade up the rulesl not tcll hci, the shamc, the sclf:hatred, the fbar; all

A Mary; it's tlre restaurant. fohn has never taken Mary to a restaurant. Mary ]ohn and Mary fall in love and get married. They both have worthwhile collects all the sleeping pills and aspirins she can find, and takes them and anci remunerativc jobs which they find stimulating and challenging.They a half a botde of sherry. You can see what kind of a woman she is by the buy a charming house. Real estate values go up. Eventually, when they fact that it's not even whiskey. She leavesa note for lohn. She hopes he'll can aflbrd live-in help, they havetwo children, to whom they are devoted. discover her and get her to the hospital in time and repent and then they can get 'fhe children turn out well. John and Mary have a stimulating and chal- married, but this fails to happen and she dies. lcnging sex lifb and worthwhile friends. They go on fun vacations to- lohn marries Madge and everything conrinues as in A. gethcr. 'fhey retire. They both have hobbies which they find stimulating c and challenging. Evcntually thcy die. This is the end of the story. John, who is an older man, falls in love with Mary, and Mary, who is only twenty-two, feels sorry for him becausehe's worried about his hair falling B out. She sleepswith him even though she's nor in love with him. She met .Vlan' falls in love with )ohn but fohn doesn't fall in love with Mary. He him at work. She's in love with someone called |ames, who is rwenty-two r.ncrcly usesher body fbr selfish pleasureand cgo gratification of a tepid also and not yet ready to setde down. kind He comes to her apartment twice a week and she cooks him dinner, John on the contrary settled down long ago: this is what is bothering you'il noticc that hc docsn't even consider her worth the price of a dinner him. John has a steady, respectable job and is getting ahead in his field, out, and aftcr hc's eaten the dinner he fucks her and after that he falls but Mary isn't impressed by him, she's impressed by fames, who has a aslcep,whilc she does the dishesso he won't think she'suntidy, having all motorcycle and a fabulous record collection. But lames is often away on thost: dirry dishes lying around, and puts on fresh lipstick so she'll look his motorcycle, being free. Freedom isn't the same for girls, so in the goocl r.l'henhe wakes up, but when he wakes up he doesn't even notice, meantime Mary spends Thursday evenings with Iohn. Thursdays are the he p-rts

lvla.lgic, after a suitablc period of mourning, marries an understanding TONI CADE BAMBARA cailJ,l Frcd and .u".yihing continues as in A, but under different 'ra' namcs. for her civilrights activism as well as herfiction and essaywriting,Toni Cade (1939-1995) grew up in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesantin D New ln 1977she publishedthe short story collectionGorillo, My Love, well and Fred an.I Madge have no problems. They get along exceptionalla which has widespreadcritical attention. Her other work includethe arise.But their charm- .rre gooJ ,t..riking our any little difhculties that may collection BrrdsAre Still Alive (1977) and the novels The Solt Eoters one day a grant tidal wave approaches'Real i,rglouse is by the scashori and the American Book Award, and /f 8/essingComes (1987). I, The rest of the story is about what causedthe tidal estatc vrlucs go rJown. Shewas alsoan of and contributorto severalessay collections, including al do, though thousands drown' but wavc arrd how they escapefiom it. They i, they clasp The BlockWomon: Anthology( | 970) and Tolesond Storiesfor Black Folks F'rcd and Maclge arc virLous and lucky' Finally on high ground ( 197l).In additionto adivism and writing,Bambara taught in collegesand cach otire r, wci and clripping and gratefi'rl,and continue as in A' rndependent hools in numerouscities. ln an interview in B/ock WomenWritersotWok explainedthe valueof her varietyof experiences: E t kind and "lt's a tremendous and honor-to be a write[ an t Ycs,bu : Fred has a bad heart. The rest of the story is about how herself artist,a cuhuralworker. ., you call this vocation.One's got to see un.jerstanding they both are until Fred dies' Then Madge devotes *Madge"'"can- what the factory worker sees, the prisonersees, what the welfarechil- to charity w,rik until the end of A. If you like, it can be dren see,what the scholarsees, to see what the ruling-classmythmakers ccr," "11uilryand confused," and "bird watching'" seeas well, rn order to tell the truth not get trappedl' F and Mary a lf vou think this is all too bourgeois, make John a revolutionary this is coul.Itei'espionageagent and sie how far that gets you' Remember' (lanacli. You'll still cnd up with A, though in between you may get a lustful sort of. brawling saga Of passionate involvement, a chronicle of our times, f) ack in the dayswhe n evervone was o stupid or young and fool- and me and Sugar were rhe only just right, this lady moved -fDirn Don't you,ll lraveto flce it, the endings are the samehowever you sliceit. on our block with nappy hair and proper and no makeup. And fake' junk be dch,ded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately quite naturally we laughed at her, laughed the we did at the man with n,alicious intent to deceivc, or just motivated by excessiveoptimism who went about his business like he was some bi -time president and his if not 1,ydownright sendmentality. sorry-ass horse his secretary. And we kinda hated r too. hated the wav Tl,c only authentic ending is the one provided here: we did the winos who cluttered up our parks and on our handball nnd' Mary d'ie' walls and stank up our hallways and stairs so you n't halfway play frt,tn nnd Mary d'ie.lohn nnd' Mnry d'ie'John hide-and-seekwithout a goddamn gas mask. Miss was her name. So mu,h filr cndings. Beginnings are alwaysmore fun. True connoisseurs' The only woman on the block with no first name. was black as hardest howev:r, are known t<, fivor the stretch in between, since it's the hell, cept fbr her feet, which were fish-white and spooky. d she was al- to do r,nything with. ways planning these boring-ass things for us to do, us be my cousln, just one Tl ,ai's abiut all thar can be said for plots, which anyway are mosdy who lived on the block cause we all moved North same time thing rLfteranother, a what and a what and a what' and to the same apartment then spread out gradual to . And our ( N'rw try How and WhY. Ie83) parents would yank our heads into some kinda shape and