Money Hungry

Raspberry and Momma get ready to drive Raspberry to school. In the hallway of their apartment building, Raspberry instinctively pinches her nose because two of the younger tenants, Shoe and Check, urinate in the hallway. This is a frequent occurrence: In the summer the boys claim they do it to kill ants, and in the winter it’s because of roaches. Raspberry knows that Momma, the head of the tenant cleanup committee, will have them scrub the hallway. Momma is interested in keeping the neighborhood kids in line. She reprimands Shoe in the driveway of the apartment building and calls out to another boy, Maleek, on the way to school for kissing his girlfriend on the sidewalk. Raspberry is embarrassed that her mother is always “minding other folks’ business” and calling attention to them (7).

The ride to school is usually a time when Raspberry and Momma connect and talk because Momma works nights. Today, Raspberry ignores Momma. Momma thinks that Raspberry’s cold behavior is because of teenage hormones but stops short when Raspberry asks her what is going on with Dr. Mitchell. Momma refuses to respond other than saying that both she and Dr. Mitchell are adults and can do as they please.

Raspberry finds Momma’s insistence on using proper English grammar grating. Momma has been in college for the past year and has been trying to correct her (and Raspberry’s) grammar. Intending to hurt her mother, Raspberry asks why Dr. Mitchell, a doctor, would want to date someone who lives in the projects with “gangbangers and junkies” as she exits the car (8).

Raspberry arrives early at school. Without saying goodbye to Momma, Raspberry greets her friend Zora outside. Zora is selling chocolate for Raspberry for 15% of the profits, but something has gone wrong. Zora sells for Raspberry to afford a pair of $120 sneakers, which her father (Dr. Mitchell) says she needs to pay half of. Zora’s life changed when her parents got divorced and her father moved her out of her private school to the magnet school that Raspberry goes to.

Before Zora can explain what’s happened, another student, Seneca Mason, shoves a half-eaten chocolate candy at Raspberry and demands her money back. Zora argues that there are no refunds and Seneca has already eaten half the chocolate, and Seneca responds by digging out the chewed-up candy bar from her mouth with her finger and offering it to the girls. Raspberry concedes and gives Seneca her money back. This interaction with Seneca is a bad omen, however, as soon more students line up to ask for their money back. Raspberry’s cash is soon wiped out.

The action reaches its climax when one student, Zenna, holds her stomach claiming she doesn’t feel well and then proceeds to vomit all over the floor. This alerts Mr. Jackson, the principal, and he intercepts one of the chocolate hearts Raspberry has been selling. Raspberry describes how she’s been keeping the chocolate in her friend Ja’nae’s freezer since she bought it the previous year. As Mr. Jackson unwraps the chocolate, Raspberry sees that it is covered in white patches that indicates the candy has spoiled.

Mr. Jackson asks Raspberry if her mother knows she’s selling the candy. Raspberry admits that while her mother knew she was selling something, Raspberry didn’t exactly give her all of the details. Mr. Jackson escorts Raspberry down the hall toward his office to call Momma.

It turns out that Zenna is sick because of the flu and not Raspberry’s candy, but this doesn’t stop rumors from forming at school that Raspberry was selling poisoned candy. Mr. Jackson forbids Raspberry from selling again. Undeterred, Raspberry begins selling Valentine’s-themed pencils at school at a discounted rate now that the holiday is passed. She tries to entice one boy, Eric, into buying a pencil for Zora, who sits staring at her reflection in a hand mirror. Raspberry compares herself to Zora and reveals the meaning behind her name: Her mother named her after the fruit because of her “red hair, red eyebrows, and enough freckles on my face that you can play connect the dots” (16-17).

Some of Raspberry’s peers ask her what she does with the money and crack jokes about her making enough money to buy a house with her profits. One peer, Sato, makes a cutting allusion to Raspberry’s experience of homelessness by suggesting that the projects must seem like the White House to Raspberry and Momma compared to when they lived “out of a cardboard box” (18). Raspberry brushes off the comment but is reminded of the summer she and her mother did have to live in an old van perched on cement blocks in the local junkyard.

Raspberry explains the real root of her obsession with money. Before her father became addicted to dope, Raspberry and her parents lived in a rented home in a decent neighborhood. Her father’s addiction caused him to become unrecognizable. He began stealing and selling their personal belongings for more drug money and acting violently towards her mother.

After Momma ended up in the hospital for the third time, Raspberry and Momma left and lived with various friends and relatives and in motel rooms until their welcome and money ran out. The only place Momma and Raspberry did not live was a women’s shelter because of an undisclosed incident that happened to Momma when she lived in a shelter during her childhood. Out of options, Momma and Raspberry turned to live on the streets, although Raspberry never missed a day of school in the entire period of their homelessness.

Momma has remained optimistic and a dreamer, while Raspberry has developed her obsession with money. Raspberry reveals that through her selling and spending she has accrued $600 that she keeps stashed throughout her room because access to money means stability.