When
and where are we in this Chapter?
Down by the Riverside; 1981; New Jersey;
October
How
does this Chapter open?
The Chapter opens with Gilda at a party.
The party is hosted by a a mortal friend named Ayeesha.
She (Gilda) believes that during this
party a friend of Ayeesha, Effie, is flirting with her.
Gilda is at the piano singing for
everyone at the party.
What
does Gilda2 do for a living?
We learn that Gilda is singing and
writing songs and performing in different clubs and events.
New
Character: Effie; Interested in Gilda.
Lived in New Hampshire in a cabin. Wrote for a magazine. Has no relatives in
the East Coast. Youngest girl in the group of friends. (pg.202)
New
Character: Ayeesha; librarian in
Schomburg Center in Harlem. Has dreadlocks and wears colorful bracelets. She is
very social.
New
Character: Karen & Chris; a couple
that Ayeesha brings to Gilda’s performance. She describes Karen as “sleek” and
Chris with a “softened face and curls”.
(Pg. 200)
New
Character: Cynthia is described as “tiny and brown” and a “Nigerian work of
Art”.
New
Character: Lavern; tall with long legs. Timid person.
Old Character: Samuel; we learn that he
has been following Gilda. He wants to get revenge since she is part of the
reason that Eleanor isn’t alive; she was a “turning point in her
existence.”(208) He is the one that makes Gilda’s mind go blank when she almost
kills the man she draws blood from.
Old
Character: Sorel: dealing/coping with
the death of Eleanor. Samuel also wants Sorel to be “punished” with the “true
death”. (209)
Gilda’s
Situation:
Incident
in the car: Gilda draws blood from a man in an empty street. She gets
distracted and cannot get her thoughts together to make the exchange. She
panics and helps cover the wound to stop the bleeding. She feels like a thief
that she wasn’t able to give back anything.
Dealing
with Samuel: He is out to get her and she is being followed by him constantly.
He wants her to suffer.
Effie’s
interest in her: Effie shows up to Gilda’s home and lets her know what she
feels for her. Gilda learns that Effie is also a vampire older than she is.
They get intimate and Effie asks of her to protect herself from Samuel by
moving with her to her home in New Hampshire.
From
the “Family of Vampires” we learn that they are very protective of each other.
Anthony worries for Sorel who worries for Gilda which shows how they all are
very thoughtful. The family of vampires are very connected and as Effie says, “
information travels very quickly among us.”(215)
The
Chapter ends with Effie and Gilda discussing Gilda’s move to New Hampshire.
There, Effie has a safe place where no one can find them unless invited. Effie
offers Gilda to stay with her to protect herself from Samuel. She ends the
Chapter by saying, “For the first time, the years ahead seemed rightfully
hers.”
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