The Third Thing
- It's the day of the rally.
- And it's bigger than Delphine would've ever expected; thousands of people have showed up.
- Black Panthers from all around the country are at this park, here for this cause.
- Police are lined up around the park, holding clubs in case it turns to a riot.
- But Delphine isn't scared. She's excited.
- She feels a part of it. She's partly responsible for it because she helped spread the word, and she's proud of that.
- The kids' performances are up first, and everything's going well.
- It looks like Vonetta is feeling super nervous, which makes Delphine nervous and a bit mad—she hopes her kid sister doesn't blow it in front of the huge crowd.
- But Vonetta swears she's ready to recite Cecile's poem just like they practiced.
- And Fern says she's ready, too, in a strangely giddy sort of way.
- Then she barks again. What's up with the barking, Fern, huh?
- They get up on stage and Vonetta introduces the poem as "I Birthed a Black Nation."
- Vonetta improvised the "Black." We don't think Cecile—ahem—Nzila will mind, and the crowd definitely loves it.
- When the sisters finish, the poem is met with lots of applause and the girls walk off stage. Well, two of them do, anyway…
- Fern stays behind. She has a poem to recite for Crazy Kelvin that no one else knows about. Delphine is about to stop her, but she doesn't.
- It's about what Fern saw on the way to San Francisco, and why she keeps barking. Finally, right?
- Apparently Fern saw Kelvin talking to a police officer from the bus, and not in a standing up for your rights kind of way.
- Nope, Kelvin was talking in an I'll-give-you-information-if-you-give-me-something kind of way.
- The barking? Well, the officer patted Kelvin on the back like a puppy.
- Oh man.
- Delphine says three things happened after that: The crowd went wild for Fern, Crazy Kelvin ran away, and a poet (Fern) was born.
- That third thing she learns from Cecile, in a letter she gets from her a month later.
- Yep, they keep in touch.