Summary

Chapter 19

It is a year later, 1991, in New York City. The divorce has been finalized and Amelia has moved to the city permanently. Now, as she takes her usual morning swim she remembers a time when she and Cam’s mother were planning on going swimming at the country club. The maid’s daughter, who was African American, was visiting that day and Amelia had asked if the little girl wanted to go swimming with them, too. The little girl enthusiastically agreed. However, instead of going to the country club, Taffy, Cam’s mother, had taken them all to the community pool.

Later as they sat poolside she confidentially told Amelia that the country club might have embarrassed the young girl as ‘no colored person has ever been in its hallowed waters’. Now, in the present, knowing about her own lineage she thinks that...