Brownies

1.     Brownie (proper noun):

a precursor of the Girl Scouts for elementary school students

“By our second day at Camp Crescendo, the girls in my Brownie troop had decided to kick the asses of each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909.” (Page 1)

2.     chromatized (adjective):

emblazoned with a colorful or garish design

“They turtled out from their bus in pairs, their rolled-up sleeping bags chromatized with Disney characters: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Mickey Mouse; or the generic ones cheap parents bought: washed-out rainbows, unicorns, curly-eyelashed frogs.” (Page 1)

3.     uncanny (adjective):

strange in an unsettling way

“The belt layered with feathers was uncanny enough, but I was more disturbed by the realization that I had never actually seen a baby pigeon.” (Page 2)

4.     aphorisms (plural noun):

short sayings or observations intended to convey meaningful truth

5.     acrostics (plural noun):

poems in which the first letter of each line spells another word

“Back at the A.M.E. church where our Brownie meetings were held, Mrs. Margolin was especially fond of imparting religious aphorisms by means of acrostics—‘Satan’ was the ‘Serpent Always Tempting and Noisome’; she'd refer to the ‘Bible’ as ‘Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.’” (Page 2)

6.     Caucasian (adjective):

white and of European origin; used in this story pejoratively in the manner of a racial epithet

“It was the word ‘Caucasian’ that got them all going. One day at school, about a month before the Brownie camping trip, Arnetta turned to a boy wearing impossibly high-ankled floodwater jeans and said, ‘What are you? Caucasian?’” (Page 4)

7.     reverentially (adverb):

performed with a feeling of awe or reverence

“The sight of Octavia's mane prompted other girls to listen to her reverentially, as though whatever she had to say would somehow activate their own follicles.” (Page 5)

8.     eerie (adjective):

strange or frightening in a way that inspires fascination

“But those last lines pricked me, they were so eerie, and as my father and I ate cereal, I'd whisper over my Froot Loops, like a mantra, ‘You are my father, the veteran. You are my father, the veteran, the veteran, the veteran,’ until my father, who acted in plays as Caliban and Othello and was not a veteran, marched me up to my teacher one morning and said, ‘Can you tell me what's wrong with this kid?’” (Page 6)

9.     laryngitic (adjective):

raspy or hoarse of voice

“‘We can't let them get away with that,’ Arnetta said, dropping her voice to a laryngitic whisper.” (Page 7)

10. irreverently (adverb):

done with a lack of respect

“She let her eyes flutter irreverently till they half closed, as though ignoring an insult not worth returning.” (Page 8)

11. volleyed (past tense verb):

passed back and forth

“Arnetta and Octavia volleyed amused, arrogant smiles whenever Janice opened her mouth, but Janice never caught the hint, spoke whenever she wanted, fluttered around Arnetta and Octavia futilely offering her opinions to their departing backs.” (Page 9)

12. impediment (noun):

an obstruction or obstacle to progress

“‘Are you gonna tell on us or not?’ was all Arnetta wanted to know, and by the time the question was asked, the rest of our Brownie troop looked at me as though they'd already decided their course of action, me being the only impediment.” (Page 10)

13. disdainful (adjective):

showing a lack of respect

“With two disdainful fingers, she picked out a slice of dripping tomato, the sections congealed with red slime.” (Page 12)

14. effigy (noun):

a crude representation of a figure, often used for religious or political purposes

“She pitched it into the stream embrowned with dead leaves and the murky effigies of other dead things, but in the opaque water, a group of small silver-brown fish appeared.” (Page 12)

15. Michael Jackson (proper noun):

a famous Black singer who was culturally dominant throughout the time of this story’s setting; his reputation shifted significantly between the story’s time period and the time period of its writing in the early 2000s due to allegations of sexual abuse of children, which would not be known to the characters of this story

“‘I love me some Michael Jackson,’ Janice said when she'd finished humming, smacking her lips as though Michael Jackson were a favorite meal. ‘I will marry Michael Jackson.” (Page 12)

16. abided (past tense verb):

accepted passively or without response

“She did not nod yes to the question, nor did she shake her head no. She abided, bent.” (Page 15)

17. parochial (adjective):

from a limited religious perspective

“When Octavia's mother wasn't giving bored, parochial orders, she sniffled continuously, mourning an imminent divorce from her husband.” (Page 16)

18. maudlin (adjective):

self-pitying or pathetically sorrowful

“The Brownie song was supposed to be sung cheerfully, as though we were elves in a workshop, singing as we merrily cobbled shoes, but everyone except me hated the song so much that they sang it like a maudlin record, played on the most sluggish of rpms.” (Page 17)

19. dewy (adjective):

wet or tearful

“Mrs. Hedy seemed to forget about divorce for a moment; she looked at us with dewy eyes, as if we were mysterious, furry creatures.” (Page 19)

20. retarded (adjective):

a now-pejorative word denoting intellectual disability that was in common usage during the time of this story’s setting

“‘I think,’ Octavia said, whispering to Elise, ‘they're retarded.’” (Page 23)

21. tattletale (noun):

a person who tells adults or other authority figures about the misdeeds of others

“Arnetta got back her old cunning. ‘If you said anything, then you'd be a tattletale.’” (Page 24)

22. stoic (adjective):

conveying an outward appearance of indifference, often in response to difficult or painful circumstances

“Arnetta looked stoic, as though she were soon to be tortured but was determined not to appear weak.” (Page 26)

23. echolalic (adjective):

displaying echolalia, a pathological need to repeat what one has heard

“Some of our girls are echolalic—” (Page 26)

24. progressive (adjective):

forward thinking, used here colloquially to refer to people engaged with ideas of modern social and racial equality

“She ducked her head apologetically, ‘I mean, not all of them have the most progressive of parents, so if they heard a bad word, they might have repeated it.’” (Page 26)

25. placid (adjective):

vacant or peaceful in a manner that conveys a lack of thought

“‘Hey,’ she said, then she set her face into a placid, vacant stare, trying to imitate that of a Troop 909 girl.” (Page 27)

26. Mennonites (plural proper noun):

members of a Christian denomination characterized by conservative dress and values committed to pacifism and avoiding many modern or worldly practices

“‘They were Mennonites. They're these people who, if you ask them to do a favor, like paint your porch or something, they have to do it. It's in their rules.’” (Page 29)