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Birdie Monologue

The narrator recalls her first big party as a child where she had the hiccups. Her mother was trying various remedies like having her brother pound on her back and giving her elderberry to stop the hiccups. While getting ready for the party, the narrator saw Oscar Hubbard pass by as he was going to a horse auction. When the narrator's brother teasingly suggested inviting the Hubbards to the party, the mother became very angry for the first time. She disliked the Hubbards for killing animals they couldn't use and charging poor black people unfair interest rates and prices when they shopped at their store. The mother's anger surprised the narrator but also caused her hicc

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Kali McBurney Taha
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1K views1 page

Birdie Monologue

The narrator recalls her first big party as a child where she had the hiccups. Her mother was trying various remedies like having her brother pound on her back and giving her elderberry to stop the hiccups. While getting ready for the party, the narrator saw Oscar Hubbard pass by as he was going to a horse auction. When the narrator's brother teasingly suggested inviting the Hubbards to the party, the mother became very angry for the first time. She disliked the Hubbards for killing animals they couldn't use and charging poor black people unfair interest rates and prices when they shopped at their store. The mother's anger surprised the narrator but also caused her hicc

Uploaded by

Kali McBurney Taha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I remember.

It was my first big party, at Lionnet I mean, and I was so

excited, and there I was with the hiccoughs and Mama laughing. Mama

always laughed. A big party, a lovely dress from Mr. Worth in Paris, France,

and hiccoughs. My brother pounding me on the back and Mama with the

elderberry bottle, laughing at me. Everybody was on their way to come, and

I was such a ninny, hiccoughing away. You know, that was the first day I

ever saw Oscar Hubbard. The Ballongs were selling their hosses and he

was going there to buy. He passed and lifted his hat - we could see him

from the window - and my brother, to tease Mama, said maybe we should

have invited the Hubbards to the party. He said Mama didn’t like them

because they kept a store, and he said that was old-fashioned of her. And

then, and then, I saw Mama angry for the first time in my life. She said that

wasn’t the reason. She said she was old-fashioned, but not that way. She

said she was old-fashioned enough not to like people who killed animals

they couldn’t use, and who made their money charging awful interest to

poor, ignorant niggers and cheating them on what they bought. She was

very angry, Mama was. I had never seen her face like that. And then

suddenly she laughed and said, “Look, I’ve frightened Birdie out of the

hiccoughs” And so she had. They were all gone.

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