Rayona knows her mother’s not responsible enough to take care of her, but that doesn’t keep her from having fierce loyalty. For years she’s made excuses for her mom’s midweek benders and hangovers, the lack of food in the fridge from grocery money spent on alcohol instead, and the days missed at work because her mom was too “sick” to go in. When Rayona’s dad comes for a visit and sees how things really are, he removes Rayona from the house and calls in a rehab clinic to take in the mom.
At first, Rayona thinks she’ll be living with her dad. But he contacts a friend at Family Services and places her in a foster home. Because Rayona is half black and half American Indian, she has a choice to go to a black home instead of a white one, but partially to upset her dad, she asks the social worker if she can go to a white home. There, she’s treated well, but things are so regulated, she can’t stand it. After only one night she leaves, to go to the home of an elderly black lady named Mrs. Jackson. Mrs. Jackson puts on a stern front and Rayona thinks she should have stayed at the first house, but as she gets to know Mrs. Jackson, she sees a woman who is trying to do the right thing but isn’t quite sure how. Soon they are giggling like little girls together, and form a solid friendship.
But that placement fails too. Mrs. Jackson’s daughter breaks her leg, and she has to go help out. Feeling abandoned yet again, Rayona calls her dad to come get her. He’s got another plan this time, and they get on an airplane. Rayona will go stay with her dad’s mother.
During the flight, Rayona gets the surprise of her life when she learns that her grandmother is white. It turns out that her grandmother, an Irishwoman, married a black man, and together they had Rayona’s father. That would explain her father’s green eyes, but Rayona doesn’t know what to think. Her whole life, she’s thought of herself as Indian and black – but now to add Irish to the mix? She’s not sure.
Her grandmother takes her in whole-heartedly, as do the other relatives in the area. It’s not long before Rayona realizes that love has no color at all.
(This book was published in 1997 by Hyperion.)
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