In the first chapter of Z.Z. Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, she tells the story of a Brownie troop, all black girls, from South Atlanta and their encounter with a troop of white girls. She tells their tale through colorful imagery and surprisingly deep reflections. In “Brownies” she uses a narrative voice, that of Laurel, a quiet girl who seems to be friends with the girls she’s around simply because they grew up together. She’s a good girl and wants to stay out of things. You can tell by the way she describes the other girls that she is very observant and probably the smartest of the bunch.
When describing the Brownie troop leader, Packer used a metaphor, comparing the woman to a mother duck. In another scene, one of the girls, another quiet girl, is cleaning up the bathroom after their troop had hatched a devious plan. She likened the look of the girl to that of a custodian who had done many years of work hunched over. Throughout the whole story, you get the feeling that you could be standing right there with the girls in the room, completely invisible to them. The setting is a camp in the middle of a forest.
The scenery is lush and green, nothing like the girls home of South Atlanta. At some times those tall trees provide beauty and shade and at others seem dark and menacing. When describing the bathroom, you can see it perfectly in your head, mess and all. We have all been in that kind of bathroom. The spot beside the stream is easily pictured in your head, as is the troop of white girls with their leader gently chiding them if they got too close to the water. It gives you a sense of peace and of mischief all at once.
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