Jazz

The narrator observes that it is “sweetheart weather” in New York City, warm and comfortable. Everyone is outside, preening and flirting; the cars have stopped honking, not wanting to spoil the perfect day. A confident brass band is playing, with clarinets that sound almost “holy.” Even Violet, who normally covers herself with coats because she is embarrassed by her thin body, has shed her layers today. But Joe is still crying, even through the music.

Violet has recently returned the picture of Dorcas to Alice Manfred, but that does not mean she has stopped thinking about Dorcas herself. So when Felice climbs Violet’s stairs, carrying a record under her arm and dressed so similarly to her murdered friend, Violet almost imagines that it is Dorcas in the flesh. The narrator confesses that for reasons she cannot quite explain, Felice always makes us nervous.

Felice now tells her story. She lived with her grandmother while her parents worked in Tuxedo, New York; they would come to visit once every three weeks. Felice’s father was an avid reader of Black newspapers, and from him Felice learned how frequently police killed Black people with impunity. In her visits to “the City,” Felice’s mother always had to run errands for her bosses in Tuxedo, even though it was her day off.

Felice admits that her grandmother was constantly critical of Dorcas. Dorcas loved to gossip about who was pretty and who wasn’t, and she would sometimes get into fights with the other girls at school. But Felice felt that life with Dorcas was always more fun—until she started seeing Joe.

At first, Felice thinks Dorcas is seeing Joe for the presents and keeping it secret because she is embarrassed. But even though Joe is old, Felice has to admit that he is good-looking. Felice reflects that Dorcas is not pretty, though “she had all the ingredients of pretty.” And though Dorcas is charming, boys at school never seem interested in her. Felice thinks this is because there is something pushy about Dorcas. The reason Dorcas likes Joe, Felice decides, is because he is married and it feels illicit.

When she was a child, Felice went with her mother to Tiffany’s, as part of one her mother’s errands for work. Felice and her mother tried to try on some of the rings, but the salespeople were rude and suspicious of them. After Felice got home, her mother gave her an opal ring that she claimed her boss had given to her—though Felice knew it was stolen.

When Dorcas started dating Acton, she borrowed that ring. Dorcas used to spend hours trying to find presents for Acton; Felice reflects that Dorcas treated Acton like Joe treated her, and Acton took Dorcas for granted like Dorcas took Joe for granted. Felice’s grandmother says Dorcas “brought it on herself.”

After Dorcas’s death, Felice goes to Joe’s house to get her ring back. Felice wants to show the ring to her family again; her mother is retired now, while her father has a job he likes on the Pullman, where he can read about the Black baseball leagues. But Felice, who didn’t go to Dorcas’s funeral, has another reason for visiting Joe. She has heard he still cries about Dorcas all the time, and she wants to tell him that Dorcas is not worth all of these tears.

When Felice arrives, the first thing Violet says to her is that Dorcas “was ugly. Outside and in.” Felice is taken aback by this, but she respects Violet’s honesty. Felice thinks Violet is just jealous, but she also notices that Violet is very pretty. And when Felice meets Joe, she is surprised to discover that he “likes women”—not just to flirt with, but as people to talk to. Felice thinks Joe seems to especially like his wife.

After that first visit, Violet invites Felice back for dinner, and Felice goes; she wants to see Joe and hear Violet talk. Violet tells Felice that she feels like she messed up her life, spending too much time wanting to be younger and lighter-skinned and not enough time being “the woman my mother didn’t stay around long enough to see.” Violet even tells Felice about Golden Gray.

Sometimes, Joe struggles to be around Felice, and Violet snaps to Felice that “your ugly little friend hurt him and you remind him of her.” But Felice is firm that she is different from Dorcas. She resents Dorcas for letting herself die so easily, and as Felice confesses this, she starts to cry. Joe asks her if this is the first time she has ever cried over her friend, and Felice realizes that it is.

Even after Felice learns that her mother’s ring was buried with Dorcas instead of left with Joe and Violet, she returns to the Trace household. She looks forward to the way Violet talks about herself; in her mouth, the word “me” is not “somebody she had put together for show” but rather “somebody she favored and could count on.”

One visit, Joe sits next to Felice on the sofa, which makes Felice nervous at first. Joe argues that Dorcas was kinder than Felice gives her credit for, more “soft.” Felice believes that Dorcas used people, but Joe confesses that he probably wanted to be used. Felice then tells Joe that Dorcas’s last words were about him, which moves Joe greatly.

At the end of the evening, after Violet has curled a last-minute client’s hair, Felice puts on a record and the Traces start to dance with each other. It’s a little funny to Felice, but she also feels touched, as if she is witnessing a private moment. When the couple invites Felice to dance, she doesn’t join in, even though she wants to. As she leaves, Violet tells her to come back soon, and Joe remarks that the house needs birds.

Felice decides to tell her mother the truth about what happened to the ring. She reflects that she loves the ring not because of the fancy opal, but because it represents a rare moment when her mother “broke the rules.” Felice thinks back to the party, and to the fact that she didn’t have a boy of her own there; she was just accompanying Dorcas and Acton. It’s warm outside, and Violet’s catfish is good, though too spicy. Felice needs to drink water to “ease the pain.”